The light and Dark of Insanity
by jreidsma
Summary: Some strange otherworldly creature made of smoke and shadow is causing insanity to spread like a plague in a small town, housed in an obsidian castle with a pulsing machine at it's heart. Three ponies are sent by an unknown royal guard to stop it but unknown to them at the time they will find that they have abilities above normal.
1. Intro to Verre, a Town with a Plague

**I am currently editing this fanfiction with the help of whoever is willing to help me, many changes are coming to all the chapters so bare with us.**

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**A huge thanks goes out to Sky Warden at the mlpforums for all the help with proof reading and editing tips, thanks once again!  
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A train is speeding towards its destination of Canterlot, the royal castle in its sights. Three stops with three different passengers coming from each. The ponies are all sitting looking out the windows of the cabin wondering what could be waiting for them when they get there. Its early morning, Celestia's sun is shining through a blanket of light fog over the horizon, a wide range of wild flowers waving in the wind on the hills outside the train's viewing ports.

None of the passengers know the others; just the few hours of the train ride for Canterlot and a few spoken words have been exchanged. A mysterious letter from the Princesses brought them to the train stations at their towns.

One of them, a soft turquoise unicorn with yellow and blue stripped mane, is making sure that they look good enough to meet with the princess and her guards. She brushes her hair back and forth, while letting out little excited murmurs to herself. Her mane and tail nicely cut and well kept as to show the unique colors. Her cutie mark shows up nicely, a rainbow shooting out of a dull prism shape.

"What is that you are saying again, Lucky Diamond?" A light cyan Pegasus with dark blue hair lightly mentions to her new friend. "If you are that worried we will all go in with you, if you would like that is…" Every pony on the train has noticed by now how her cutie mark seems to be two different symbols. A cloud and rain, or perhaps a cloud raining? Whatever it is it matches the colors of the pony.

"Oh, Rain Breeze, all three of us can go in! I am sure no one would mind, we were all called over anyways." The unicorn, Lucky, agrees with her friend before continuing with her mane brushing.

"It's just a darned shame we have to wait so long to get there," the third pony complains out the window. She is a light orange earth pony with dark yellow hair kept in braided pony tails. Her cutie mark a couple of peach slices laying skin down.

"What if we play some sort of game means Peaches is so bored?" Rain sticks her tongue out a little towards the earth pony as the earth pony looks out the windows again.

"We have already exhausted all of our game ideas… This train ride is a long one for sure-" The Earth pony stares blankly out the windows of the train into the landscape "-and the windows aren't giving us anything to do either."

"We'll, you're not exactly helping the situation either-" smirks Lucky Diamond "-complaining isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Sorry, it's just that, well. This train ride is getting to me. I never usually sit still for this long." After talking Peaches rests her chin on her hoof and lets out a long sigh.

"Oh that's alright-" the blue Pegasus flutters over to the other two "-a nap spends some of the extra time."

"Oh, that's why you were so quiet?" The other two almost say in unison.

The pony's face turns a bright red color and she tries to find a place to hide. As she turns around she is flung backwards. A sudden screeching sound fills the cabin and the train grinds to a stop. The three ponies yell fair well to the drivers and jump off to meet their destiny hoof and face first, the wonders of Canterlot striking them with awes. The amazing shops and destinations, the wonderful outfits every pony is wearing, it was all so much different than their hometowns. But the real reason why they were there was a shocking letter they had received from royalty, describing in sloppy handwriting "Come to the palace, there is not much time" without any other description the ponies have realized that something is not right. All three had received the same letter without any differentiation between them.

Upon arrival at the palace they are greeted by a very large muscular all white royal guard. Something they would normally view as "normal" for the royal guard. But this one seems a bit… off.

"Why hello there, we are here to see the princess about this letter." Lucky gives the letter to the guard. The guard looks over the letter before leading them off to a different location inside the castles winding hallways besides the Princesses royal throne room.

"I am terribly sorry but the Princess is away right now, she has left me with the duty of telling you what your assignment is." The guard coldly stares forward.

"Wait, what do you mean away?" Lucky's face goes from questioning to worry in an instant.

"Royal business does not need to be questioned by outsiders like you three, no matter what it may have been. I am sure the princess can handle it herself," the guard shoots back in an instant almost like he is hiding something.

With a slightly raised voice and arched eyebrows, Lucky defends herself against the guards insult. "What do you mean outsiders? We have been here many times, each time we have never been called 'outsiders' or any other name."

"With everything that is going on we have to be careful, sorry if I did not recognize you. I am a bit… new here…" His voice cracks slightly when it lowers, like some pony trying to mimic another voice but failing to do so correctly.

"Well, is Luna here by any chance? And what may we call you for the time being?" Lucky's mood lightens slightly; it's probably not a good idea to make a Royal Guard mad.

"I am lord Ornament. And sorry but whatever is going on Luna has left also, it must have been very important for both of them to leave."

Lucky leans in towards her friends as the guard turns a corner, following him like before but a bit slower as to keep a safe distance."I have never heard a guard call them self 'lord' before have you?"

Peaches leans forward mimicking her friend, whispering back. "Nope, and I think I see where you are going with this…"

The guard glances back at the three then opens a pair of doors leading into a study area, using a large key ring to access the room. Once inside he pulls a book off one of the many shelves and places it on the table in the middle of the room.

"Ok then, so what is this assignment that we three have been tasked with. We thought it was a disaster or something by the way it was written. We all received the same exact letter, which is weird because every pony usually gets different letters from the Princess." Lucky pulls her letter out of her saddle bag to give it to the guard, who ignores it and keeps on with his business.

"There is a small village outside of Canterlot named Verre that has been suffering from some plague that is need of some help-" The guard points next to the book on the table onto a map in the middle. On the other side of a small mountain range next to Canterlot is a small town named Verre exactly like the guard said "-The ponies of this village are unable to gain their cutie marks, no matter the age. Young fillies to the elderly, none of them are able to gain their cutie marks. None of our sources have been able to find a cure but it seems to be non contagious so we assume it is safe to find help in other ways. We understand that the princess has been getting help from you three on smaller assignments and were wondering if you would be interested in lending a hoof in this mystery?"

"Wait a minute, how do you know this problem won't affect us if we stay too long?" Peaches is being Peaches.

As the guard begins to pack the map and book into a saddle bag he begins to explain vaguely on a matter of diseases, something guards such as himself probably wouldn't know much about. "Well, if this problem was to affect any pony else that stayed there. Then some of us that were stationed there would have become ill or something I presume?"

"I guess if you say so…" She turns back to see if Lucky and Rain agree with the guard, just to be met with blank stares.

"I will include a sort of 'guide' to the town's people. So you know who to talk to first and their names. Anyways, would you three be interested in helping?" The guard tosses the saddle bag to Lucky before obtaining the answer to his own question.

The three ponies look at each other with awe struck and confused glances. All three wondering what they could possibly do in this situation that the royal guard couldn't but Lucky lets out a squeak "yes, we would be honored" and before they knew it they were off to the cutie mark-less village on the same train in which they had just departed.

"Oh girls, what have we gotten ourselves into this time...?" Lucky puts her hoof onto her face.

"Come on, Lucky, it will be fine. We will be able to figure out something. And if not, then at least we tried to." Peaches comes over placing her own hoof onto Lucky's shoulder.

"Ya, like Peaches said, look at the bright side! We can't just leave some ponies in need alone! Oh I can't wait to meet all the new ponies, I hope they are nice." An excited Rain Breeze starts prancing and bouncing around the cabin of the train.

"Hold on there, I hope they are nice also, but remember that they are all very depressed about this whole thing and that we are there to help them before anything else-" the unicorn magically picks up a book given to her by the royal guard on plagues and cutie mark related illnesses "-How would you feel if some group of cheerful students came in and acted like everything was a game? But it is a good idea to get friends there and a good idea of the place. I mean, if the royal guard couldn't solve this problem what makes them think we can?"

"Although we aren't acting like this is a game," Lucky continues, "I think you all get my point. We don't want to make any pony angry right away."

As the hours pass by on the train the ponies become sleepy and end up sleeping. By morning they wake and they have nearly arrived in the town. A rather dreary town to say the least, but a town it is. Once again the royal guard seems a bit suspicious in this whole ordeal, what happened to the town being "close to Canterlot" according to the map?

The three ponies start on their mission, their starting point to find out what is going on and to find the source of the "plague". They have decided that if this is not contagious, then it may not be a disease at all, but a spell or curse of some sort. So they start with the hint the royal guard Ornament gave them, Honey Darling, kind of the town mayor of sorts. She knows every pony and loves every pony.

On the way walking to Honey Darling's home they take in the scenery of this new town. Rather depressing. Very empty of pony life, a few here and there but it seems that almost every pony has gone missing or something.

Other than the homes of the ponies still in the town and the school, the town is a ghost town with broken down buildings. Windows with glass replaced with boards. Grass turning brown and dying, potted plants and flowers are dead. The empty houses are mostly abandoned by every pony else. The main structure of the house is surprisingly well kept though; it's just the finishing touches that need finished. But none-the-less the houses make the whole place look dreary and uninhabitable.

"Hello, any pony home!" Yells the multicolored Unicorn into the seemingly empty home of Honey Darling, from around the back of the house a honey colored pony with well kept brown mane and tail comes from the back with a basket of strawberries freshly picked.

"Welcome to Verre! Sorry to keep you waiting, I assume you three are the ones from Canterlot?" Honey Darling politely welcomes her guest, much more happily than expected from a "plagued town".

"Yes we are, nice to meet you." Lucky stretches out her hoof for a shake which Honey accepts.

"We were just wondering if you had any idea of any pony that would be able to see around this area. We were thinking that perhaps the problem every pony is having may be more of a magic problem instead of a biological one." Questions Lucky in a manner that only she could manage after meeting a new pony.

"Hmm, perhaps a few Pegasi would do? I know just the group, the weather team Mist Rider and Thunder Mane, and they should be over by the group of clouds somewhere. It's hard to miss them no matter where they are." Honey raises a hoof over to the right, motioning to the skies.

Off to the clouds the group goes in search of two ponies flying in the skies. And was Honey Darling right, two Pegasus flying at high speeds in the clouds could be seen from across town. White and yellow streaks like lightning bolt through the sky, lighting up their paths shooting wherever they wanted.

Mist Rider was white and cyan, the commander of the weather team. He had noticed nothing unusual about the country sides or even in town. No nature changes or magical changes to be seen. And the other blue and yellow named Thunder Mane. Neither of them had noticed anything unusual within the town area. Except for a weird fog that has plagued the town for years now, more like a shadow that one cannot pass. A starting point none the less, but not enough to discover anything. The fog could cover the whole town, so a cause of it could be anywhere. But maybe the workers of thee town could shed some light on the issue, perhaps one of their construction sites caused this?

The three paid the two elderly workers a visit. The brawny brothers, covered in dust and spazzing into coughing fits every once and a while. They have nearly built this town, now the first to come and settle down and the ones to help build, along with plan, the newest buildings. For now, during this plague they have been suffering the brothers have been keeping the abandoned buildings from collapsing. The large number of the houses keeps the two from painting and finishing any of the homes off though. But once again, they don't have any ideas as to why no one had gained their cutie marks, or as to why the strange fog is coming every day.

But Honey Darling had another idea, if magic was the problem, then the town Mage was the one to seek out. To Dream Prism next the ponies went. A mysterious tent was we're she was found during the day.

"Hello Dream?" Peaches asked to a flap of a door on the tent

"Come inside," a welcoming voice replied to the three ponies outside. They walk inside just like asked.

"So, uh, we were wondering if you knew or sensed anything unusual about the magic of or around the land here that could have anything to do with every pony's cutie marks not developing. We understand that you are the town Mage," asked the gleeful unicorn, probably wanting to get some insight from another magic user, "or even on this strange fog that we are hearing about."

"I wish it was that easy, but something seems to be blocking any sensory magic in certain areas outside the town. I am sorry to say that I cannot pinpoint the exact location-" The unicorn shakes her head in disapproval at her own lack of answers "-I wish I could solve this issue like all the others this town faced."

"This town has faced other issues, like what?" The Rain begins with her own questions.

"Well, a while back a few strange black pony like things flew past us. They never caused any trouble but a few... misfortunes came shortly afterwards. A mysterious fog covers the forest every night and the cave outside the town. Along with a few of our ponies vanished and never returned. A week or so before they vanished they went insane and started mumbling and talking to themselves, a few days later they started twitching, then after that they started yelling out. It simply got worse after that until one night we woke up and they were gone." The unicorn cringes at the thought of what may have happened to them.

"Wow, sounds like this is more than the royal guards made it out to be..." Rain's face shows a slightly depressed look mixed with disappointment.

On the way back to Honey Darling's house the three ponies find three younger fillies fighting with what they think to be a school bully. But once they walk towards them the school bully runs off. The three fillies left look strangely familiar, wearing capes, one a green and red puffy looking unicorn. One a pink with purple pig tailed hair earth pony and the last an all red Pegasus.

"Have you three noticed anything unusual happening around these parts of town?" Lucky ask the foals thinking that maybe children would be keener of noticing things adults would leave out, partially just not wanting to leave any pony out.

"You mean other than that weird orange bully?" The red Pegasus lets out a short come back and the rest of the fillies giggle.

"Let me handle this Lucky, I think I know what they are after. There was a similar group in the town I came from." Rain Breeze winks at Lucky and Peaches then leans towards the three fillies. "This is very important if you ever want you cutie marks, we want to help everyone in town gain theirs. Do you know of anything weird or scary happening near town or anything?"

The three fillies look at each other and then back and rain, with a quick glance back and forth they all three yell "The cave!"

"Thank you so much you three, we will make sure to check it out and tell every pony what happens."

The three children run off yelling "Cutie Mark Crusaders Northern Branch" or something of the like and the three friends re-embark on their mission with a few short giggles.


	2. The Living Castle

At the entrance of the cave the three friends stand scared out of their wits, all of them thinking the same thought; "notagoodidea-notagoodidea". None of them like the idea of wondering into caves, but they have to do it. In the name of Celestia they have to do it.

The wondering passage sways, the dark dripping tendrils reek of death and decay. Something is in here, and whatever it is isn't good. Something appears to be spread all over the walls and ceiling but only the people outside could have the stomachs to guess what it was.

The three just walked slowly huddled together in the hallways of this seemingly endless labyrinth of one hall. No splits or cut offs, just a one way street to the end of the cave. But that's all this cave may need when even the stench could fight off any pony with any sense at all.

They reach the end of the hallway and into a large dimly lit room. Spikes with some sort of goo and ooze on them from whatever victim lay there last. The fog seems dense enough to cut with a knife. The room looks almost like some sort of old torture chamber. Many assorted torturing devices; tables with latches and hooks, wall hanging set ups, tasers neatly arranged against the wall, and next to the tasers was a rather impressive but unused sword rack.

A rather confusing room, but the sword rack had given its purpose away. This was not for physical torture, but for mental. Whatever group they have stumbled upon must be hiding secrets that they would need to keep hidden. Or perhaps they needed to learn others secrets.

The groups anxiety calmed a bit as they realized that the room was not a physical torture chamber. Meaning that perhaps the users were not as violent as first feared, but perhaps just a secret society of some sorts.

"Hey hey, I have an idea!" An over excited blue Rain Breeze begins to cheer up herself. "What if this place isn't even used? Maybe it's an ancient ruin of some sort?" A wink and an awkward grin try to suppress the shaking and scared pony.

"That would be nice, but how would an ancient ruin have tasers?" The multicolored unicorn questions back, trying not to be too harsh as all three of them are still scared of this cave system.

"Umm… maybe it's just for protection? Maybe this group just uses it to scare away anyone that tries to come close to them?"

"That's a better idea that would explain why nothing seems to be used. But what's confusing me is this stench, why does it stink so horridly?" Lucky's face winces at this "stench" she is mentioning.

"Perhaps it's one of those magical spells you unicorn's like to use?" Peaches decides to break her own silence. "You know how sometimes you can make stuff look differently with magic. Maybe they made this room smell this way to add that special effect?"

"Hmm, that makes sense I guess." Lucky trails off slightly while examining the rest of the room.

Unlike the rest of the cave there were a few doors in this large chamber. One had some bank like latch system on it that unhooked with magic. Lucky used hers to open it easily, no code or key was needed so whatever group using this place must not have planned being found so soon. Behind the door was an extremely clean, all white lab room. A few tables up against the walls with various sized beakers and test tubes like any pony would see in a lab. What startled the three was what was in the middle.

A small table and chair sat in the middle of the lab. On the small table sat a simple black box, something one would remember as a jewelry box or something of the sort. Next to the lab table was a very large, strange circular carving on the ground in the cold hard stone of the lab. It had some sort of scribbles or symbols on it. In the middle a simple but hideous metal table with a belt to hold down each of a pony's legs and neck.

"Well, this is all very disturbing and everything… but we can't simply expect every pony to believe us can we?" A pale Rain Breeze mumbles at her two friends.

"Hmm, you do have a point. I guess this box will do better than anything else in this stingy lab room." The black box levitates towards the unicorn of the group as they turn around and head back into the less clean parts of the cave system.

A long and scary trek back out of the cave later and the three are back in town. They had spent more time in the cave than they had planned and it was past midnight, a long restless night in their rented house gave them a little comfort until morning.

Back to Dream Prism's tent they went, if any pony were to know about the strange box and symbols in the floor of the cave she should. It all simply baffled the three as they hadn't seen anything like it before. They box so simple and the symbols so… so… strange.

"Hello! Any pony home?" The three seemingly ask the inanimate house door again. This time they are greeted by the pony herself, invited inside shortly after.

"So, what brings you three to my household so late?" Dream rubs her eyes as she leads the three inside.

"Well, we once again are in need of something we cannot answer." Lucky begins to open her saddlebag and levitates out the black box setting it in front of Dream.

"It has been very long sense I have seen one of these… I thought we were past these dark days but my hopes were too high once again." The unicorn's brows express her disappointment and anger towards society itself.

"So… you know what this box is?" Lucky continues on with questions but hesitates upon asking them to the angered pony.

"Sadly yes, it's used to seal away magic that has been drained from something. The last usage I have seen was by cults and dark magic users to steal magic away from unicorns. But those days should have been long gone as it is a lost magic and a lost cause."

"Well, some pony doesn't think so…" A saddened look approaches the three's faces "We found this and a large number of lab equipment in the cave on the outskirts of town. Which we are now assuming is for this ritual you are talking about."

"You must take me there; hopefully we still have time before they do any damage. I hope that the users of this are only fools who have stumbled upon it, and not some force that will endanger Equestria." Dream stands up ready to go to the cave system at any given time.

The three head back to the cave, this time with a new and more experienced pony that can light up the cave easier. Upon examining the rooms their fears have been confirmed, this is no novice. Whatever pony or group is doing this has been doing this for years.

Dream confirms the analysis that the first torture room is a mental and not a physical torture chamber. The weapons have never been used and there is no evidence of blood anywhere. Upon opening the lab room doors Dream instantly begins to analyze the circle and equipment. Down on her knee's she stares down the symbols like she is trying to scare them away.

"Yep, seems we were right before coming here. Some pony is catching other ponies and stealing their magic energy then sealing it away in that box or as a liquid in vials for later use.-" Dream stretches a bit as she stands from looking at the symbols and lab equipment "-The circle activates which sucks the magic out of whatever victim is on the table in the middle. Not a pleasant experience for any pony to say the least…"

Closer examination of the passageways reveals a new passageway leading outside, the lack of lighting last time made the ponies miss it. The four charge outside and they are awe struck by the sight, a large black castle. Black shining pillars circling it made of the same obsidian the castle itself is made from. As the four walk closer they are stopped by a large brute of a guard.

Regal, a large brute unicorn surrounded but large axes, swords, and a large number or weapons and spikes. His magic level was above anything ever felt by the three friends, and he silence that came forth from this pony's mouth could never be explained with words. It is not simply silence. But it almost sucks the life out of you, almost makes you depressed and want to give up simply by standing near him. His whole body is gray, almost sickly looking, eyes that radiate emotionless pain and sorrow, knotted up mane and tail that hasn't been properly washed in no telling how long.

"Wait, how do we know his name? I don't remember you telling us princess?" The scared Rain Breeze stammers hoping the guard wouldn't hear.

"It seems as if he is mute, communicating through our minds. He must have a considerably large amount of magic, telepathy requires quite a bit of energy, along with the fact that he is the only one guarding this castle." Dream tries to inform her new younger friends in their time of fear, "One can't help but feel for him though; talking is one of the bases of our society."

One of the huge axes starts to levitate behind Regal; it flings towards the unicorn as if to say "shut up" but stops inches away from her face, her magic stopping it from getting any closer to them. As a drip of sweat starts to swell up on Dream's face another weapon begins to fly towards the group, this time a sword and at a faster speed.

Dream throws the large weapon upwards to block the incoming threat. The axe shoots upwards hitting the sword causing both to fall, delving deep into the ground with a loud crash, showing their true weight. Another axe starts to levitate but Peaches charges full speed at Regal causing him to put up a force field in front of him and the weapons to fall, Lucky teleports Peaches to the side of the unicorn outside of the range of the force field in a flash of light. She then quickly turns and gives the unicorn a bone crunching kick to the ribs, his face winces slightly to the pain but the sound is enough to satisfy.

Slowly another sword rises and flies towards the earth pony, this time not alone, four more axes and swords are flying with it and terrifying speeds. The impact from the pony's kick apparently having no effect on the unicorn aged in battle.

Out of fear for her friend being harmed Lucky quickly teleports towards the guard and head butts him full speed into the side, her horn like a dagger stabbing him in the side. The frightened Lucky Diamond screams at the top of her lungs as she rams Regal, magic energy oozing out of her horn like poison into his veins. Once again causing no more than a small wince of pain on his face.

"I thought we had him, what in the hay happened?" Peaches looks to her friend for some sort of answer with a confused look on her face.

"I have no clue… there is something strange going on." Lucky has the same confused look.

The wounds left from all their attacks have healed. A one sided battle, one versus four and the four are losing. How could this be?

"We haven't even made it inside yet…"

This time a large rock spike levitates into the air and quickly gains altitude, then plummets down towards the group. Dream Prism stops it with her magic as Regal charges a sword right towards them. Lucky, knowingly unable to stop it head on, smashes the sword into the ground with a rock right before it hits the group. As the smoke clears Regal appears right behind them, ready to strike. For such a large stallion he either can move very quickly or can cast teleportation spells.

A flash of light blinds every pony and shoots straight through Regal sending him sideways. The shocked and painful expression of being ran through on Regal's face as he watches a beam of light strike through his body. No amount of healing would save a mortal creature from that.

After their eyes re-adjust they see Lucky, her right eye becoming almost holy. Her entire eye shines brightly with a white light but then calms down to a holy white color with aqua blue iris. The guard stands back up but falls again. After being poisoned by the unicorns horn earlier, and now being struck by some unknown and unseen force his body cannot heal.

They had finally beaten the behemoth guard, but with this much trouble simply getting in, what would happen if they opened the doors into the obsidian castle? The unicorn's body turns to ash and blows away with the wind, his apparently immortal body unable to cope with the wound given to him this time. A mighty warrior has been lost.

Moments later the strange change in Lucky's eye disappears like it never happened.

The group huddles together next to a fire they built in a cave a ways away from the castle. They stood no chance unless their wounds healed overnight. Hopefully the group would have their full strength by morning and be able to put up a fight against the empire inside of those obsidian doors. Knowing that more fights, hopefully less frightening than today's, would be ahead.

"Hey Lucky?"

"Ya Peachy?"

"There just feels like something is off about that castle. Like something's in there that shouldn't be in this world. Like in that cave..." Peaches is just testing the water; all three of the ponies want to ask Lucky the same thing.

"I know what you mean." Lucky stares up at the dull gray ceiling of the cave, wondering what is in store for them inside the enormous castle.

"So, uh, about the fight earlier…"

"I don't know." Lucky interrupts her friend, knowing where the conversation is going.

"Excuse me? You don't know what? How could you not know anything about your eyes going all crazy on us and you killing that guy?"- Peaches points a hoof at her friend –"We are all glad it happened, or else we might not be here right now. But what exactly was it?"

"The truth is, I don't know. This is the first time that has happened." Lucky turns onto her side, closing her eyes and tries to go to sleep.

As the group wakes in the morning they are all still in some pain, aching all over from the fight but a lot better off then yesterday. They creep out of the cave and work their way back to the castle. The only way in seems to be the front gates, or the numerous vents towards the top of the castle. The gates would be easier but would just invite another attack. But how would the group get inside the vents when only one of them can fly? Luckily levitation spells are no problem to the two unicorns of the group.

Rain Breeze picks up Peaches while the two unicorns levitate and they quickly fly their way up through the vents in the top of the castle. Even the inside of the castle seems to be made of some sort of hard black glass, what the ponies guess is obsidian enchanted to be harder than normal. Incredibly clean looking compared to the cave system. There is the feeling that something is watching you, alongside the eerily quiet silence of the castle.

The clicking of hoof steps quickly fills the hallway the ponies were about to enter from the vent. They stop their movements and cling to the walls. What appears to be a female changeling walks under them in the halls. She is an alicorn shaped changeling much like the one that attacked Canterlot during the wedding; just the voice is a bit more sinister sounding as she seems to be talking to a shadow that circles her.

"Vexation, I thought I told you that there should have been guards or some sort of defense in that cave..." Echoes a strange otherworldly voice

"I know I know, but I thought you said that no one notices that cave system." Hisses back the changeling shaking her head back and forth towards the shadow as it shifts across her body.

"I didn't account for those stupid foals."

"You have such a wonderful way with this world's creatures…" Vexation chuckles a bit to herself at her own comeback.

The soft clicking of her hooves dissipates down the hall and the ponies assume they have left out of hearing and sight distance. Dream Prism cast a slight levitation spell on everyone so they don't make any sounds while walking, creating a small air cushion around their hooves. And they begin to explore the obsidian castle.

Miniature pillars of black glass hold the sides of the inside of the castle. The whole inside of the castle has a black luster or shine to it. Elegance is one word to describe it, but sinister is another. Much like an ancient civilization, the way it's made has its own sort of beauty to it.

The hallways are chaotic, no, more like madness. They continue for what seems like forever. Twisting and turning, up and down. It's easy to get lost. But their searching comes to an end when they reach a large wooden door. As it opens the familiar stench of blood, death, and decay fills their nostrils. They have found a cavern that leads back to the cave which had lead to the castle. After a few stairways a large door presents itself. Creaking as it opens a large room with dozens of ponies are inside.

The ponies look like mindless zombies. Their eyes have no coloration to them at all. Mouths hanging open and half starved. Clearly they are all in need of medical attention as soon as possible, covered in wounds clearly from being tortured. They all have some sort of amulet around their necks, pulsating with some sort of magical energy keeping them insane.

"Hang on, we came from the village across the cave! As soon as we get these things off of you we will bring you back home where it is safe and get these wounds cleaned up..." The nurturing Rain Breeze tries to fumble with the amulets around their necks but gets an electric shock back and is stunned for a few moments.

"They must be connected to the owners of this castle somehow, or some sort of power source" Dream Prism warns, a few moments too late though.

"Oh thanks..."

And off once again they go, being sure to replace everything they touched and the doors back in place. One false move and they would be overwhelmed with the army that the other side has. They find themselves walking through yet another hallway. One after another the hallways lead to dead ends or large rooms, some of which housing large amounts of cult members. Anything from sleeping areas, large empty rooms, or eating areas with large tables is found in the large castle. This is clearly a sophisticated society of some sort, except for the torturing part, all being housed in one single castle, a cult, an evil cult that is bringing insanity and torture to the town's ponies that have nothing to do with whatever they are doing here.

Into another hallway they go, this time it leads straight upwards, a large number of stairs and vents lead to a large empty room with one simple glass circle in the middle. With what looks like Canterlot painted realistically in the middle. The female changeling and smoky creature are here as well. The glass painting suddenly starts to move as it fades to show lord Ornament, the royal guard, and he begins to converse with the changeling and fog creature.

"I hope you're doing well my little Ornament?" An otherworldly voice echoes

"Why I guess you could say that, have you heard anything of those scoundrels I sent your way? I figured they may give you guys something to do for a short while." The guard that sent Lucky and her group says back through the portal on the floor.

"Oh, you mean the little ponies? All they have managed to do is steal a box-" chuckles the female changeling "-So is the portal ready on your side yet?"

"Why yes, it is ready whenever you are."

"Excellent, we will teleport now then. But before that, why did you send the ponies that thought they were detectives?" Vexation begins to playfully question the guard.

"Oh, I figured maybe it would be funny to see the looks on their faces if they figured out that we caused this plague they are so worried about."

The group of four ponies exchange glances and get ready to charge in after them. They know what is coming next. A full on war against these three, and if they are anything like that guard they had outside, it will take everyone's help to defeat them.

The changeling and foggy thing jump into the glass, like a pool of mercury, and then the ponies rush in after them. They arrive in the large throne room of Celestia's castle. Celestia and Luna are still there like nothing is happening out of the ordinary though.

"Come on Princess! Do something!" Lucky tries to reason with the blank stares of her mentors and friends.

Blank stares are all she receives.

"Luna?"

Nothing.

"Celestia?"

Once again nothing in reply

"Do not worry; peace has been obtained in the name of me" Echoes the voice, once again eerily making every pony scared out of their wits and angry at the same time that it would have the nerve to say such things.

"You…" A stomp of her hooves onto the cold hard ground and the charge of her horn show the unicorns anger "what have you done!" She screams at the top of her lungs as she charges towards the shadowy figure.

The whole room turns black as a night without Luna's stars, moon, or guidance. The four ponies are lost in a sightless world and have no idea where they are. A voice rings in their minds "None shall impede on the reformation of my Wretched Darkness" they all think it to be the changelings. Once they regain their sight they realize that they are once again in the throne room, but rather this time it's a copy in the obsidian castle.

"Wow, that was a great plan" Peaches thinks aloud.

"Well, it was better than doing nothing I guess?" The hopeful Rain tries to cheer everyone up while holding back her own tears.

"Don't you think this lovely room would make a great battle field, too bad you can't take it back." The changelings taunt in unison.

The shadowy creature forms into a foggy alicorn. Its wings the largest any pony has seen, the appearance of fire created by its shadowy form. It's voice like a devil's, it has no eyes yet it still stares into your soul.

"I'm sorry but do you want your precious princesses back? Well, perhaps you should forget about them and look towards the ones in front of you?" The shadowy figure points towards to the princesses behind it.

"Wait, what are you talking about, aren't they right there?" Confusion on Peaches' face tells it that she has no idea what it is talking about.

The shadowy figure then continues to form into another shape, this time a changeling shape. "Oh why you don't seem to have the brains to support your brawn, do you my little pony? Those are my changelings… One would expect you to see that…"

Peaches face begins to twitch but she feels a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't let it taunt you too badly; what can some stupid smoke do to us besides make fun of us anyways?" A familiar and caring blue Pegasus calms her friend down.

Lucky then continues to smash the shadow with a large piece of rubble against the wall while the changelings form back to their normal forms. Two black, sickly looking, hole filled, alicorn shaped things with insect like wings. Exactly like the regular changelings and their queen, Chrysalis. Except these ones seem a bit, different. The other changelings looked not quite so "sickly looking" as one may describe these ones. The two changelings have been filled with energy like Chrysalis had been feeding on love.

"Now Lucky, I calmed down Peaches just for you to smash the stupid shadow thing?" Rain points at the "shadow thing" and stares down her friend.

An axe and a sword crash through two of the windows. The shadow pony reforms as if nothing happened. "Oh, now I am a shadow thing? You four simply do not give me any flattering names do you?" The strange figure flows behind its two changeling subjects giving them the nod to handle the new intruders. It goes to the corner and reforms in the shape as a unicorn. It pulls a box out of its side and sets it on the throne which lights up upon receiving the box.

"I have but one wish, to regain my true form, and for that I need to sacrifice these two alicorns I have in this box. Is this wrong what I am doing? It was them who made me this way, now it is them who will turn me back!"

"What?" The young unicorn snaps back "You have no right to steal other people happiness just so you can gain more power!"

The two large rock weapons turn to face the group and swing towards them stopping at the magical force of Dream Prism yet again. The two changelings taking on the same tactics as Regal did the day before. Lucky and the other two ponies charge straight at the changelings as they are now open to attack. But as they go to head butt Vexation, the female changeling, Ornament kicks Lucky off the raised throne stair case. Rain Breeze quickly catches her before she plummets out of the broken windows and flies back inside where the unicorn uses her magic to throw the broken glass at the changelings. Temporarily stunning them as Ornament puts up a force field and Vexation brings the two large weapons back towards them.

For some reason though Dream Prism is still focused on something, even though both sides seem to be on the defensive. Then a loud crack fills the room and every pony's attention goes to the large floating axe as it crumbles to the ground as shards and dust.

"You... What have you done?"

"Oh, sorry about that." A smirk on her face, Dream shoots back "a simple aging spell rotted your poor weapon, I'm sorry; it looks like now it's a more fair fight!"

"But How? No normal pony should be able to use an aging spell!" Vexation throws her hoof in the air pointing it at the unicorn in front of her.

"Oh your right, I guess that's what happens when you use ancient weapons isn't it? It's a bit easier to destroy something that's already half aged to dust." A slight smirk appears on Dream's face enraging the changelings even more.

The other weapon slowly crumbles to the ground, the changelings furious with their precious weapons being destroyed. Anger takes over their faces as a bolt of white light shoots from Lucky's horn towards the changelings at blinding speed. Shooting Ornament against the wall, it barely phases the strange being as he smirks to himself. Her eye becomes the same as before while fighting Regal, a white light shines from it. After the light fades it shows the almost purifying white and an aqua blue iris.

"You think that holy magic would really work against someone that has grown on Celestia's power and city?" A fake sense of security, created by that sentence makes Ornaments face smile.

Lucky's left eye begins to cloud over with a black fog. The whites of her eyes become black and her pupils become dagger shaped like a dragon's and her iris bright yellow like a black cat's. Her horn sparks with what seems like black electricity and a bolt of pure black magic shoots towards the changeling. He falls to his knees gasping for breath as the unicorn strikes him over and over with the same bolt after bolt of pure black magic. With no physical effect to the changeling, pushing and pushing him to the brink of exhaustion, cracking the bricks behind him until the wall shatters and Ornament falls off the castle like his name sake off a tree.

Vexation is standing alone by the throne, awe struck by the pure power struck against her companion. "You… What the heck are you!" fear struck into the changeling's eyes as she stares into the unicorn with two different eyes, one black with pure evil, one white and radiating holiness.

"Are you just about ready Wretched Darkness?" Vexation looks towards the shadowy figure in the corner.

"If I was ready I would have said so."

"Come on don't be that way, we are getting a bit of a situation here!" Vexation stomps on the ground.

"Don't you ask for help after what you have done to all those ponies!" Yells a franticly charging Rain Pegasus, slowly getting frozen into obsidian as she gets closer and closer to her enemies, as she turns to stone she murmurs "it's not fair... It's not fair... I just wanted…"

"Peaches, come here." Dream motions for Peaches to come to her as she levitates the now frozen Rain Breeze out of harm's way. "You remember that weird machine we found and the ponies from the town?"

"Yep, sure do. Remember how to get to them and everything."

"Alright, I want you to go free all the ponies and then go destroy that machine. Meet us back here afterwards."

"Will do!"

Vexation has now put up a strong force field around herself and the shadowy figure, now known as "Wretched Darkness" apparently. Lucky has needed some time to recharge after her assault on the other changeling, who has not come back yet.

Both unicorns begin to throw whatever spells they have at the changeling. Lucky her new holy magics and dark magics. And Dream Prism tries to throw in a few spells here and there but is mainly trying to increase Lucky's capabilities and magic potential with spells used for training and non-combat ponies.

Meanwhile back deeper inside the obsidian castle. Peaches has managed to find the large room with the machine and slaves. Now that the changelings and Wretched Darkness are occupied the aura in the room is not as strong as before and the amulets come off the ponies who now remember who they are. After grouping them all safely outside the castle Peaches chaotically dismantles the machine. It beats like a heart on the inside and looks living. Almost like a real creature, but contains gears and moving parts connected to the castle itself. A fragile machine, without the protection of the guards it falls apart easily.

Vexation lets out a sickly cough and her magic decreases. The feeling in the air lets the ponies know of that much. Peaches must have succeeded at her task. The final stretch is finally here in their fight, hopefully.

Lucky strikes the force field around Vexation causing it to crack, leaving an opening for Dream's lighting to find its way to break the force field completely. This sends shards in every direction as they splinter and evaporate into the air before landing or hitting anything.

"Look at us fools fighting like this, is it really necessary that we do this sort of thing?" Dream Prism tries to reason with the Changeling "We may be different, but why sacrifice another just to gain something. Why kill to be killed?"

"Because it's what he wants, nothing more and nothing less. Do I have a choice?"

Vexation faints onto the ground, her magic power exhausted for the sake of another. With the enemy fainted the pegasus turned to obsidian melt to normal. Peaches runs in the room out of breath but none the less on time.

"I see that neither of my guards were worthy opponents, such a shame. I should have known that they were worthless like the last ones." The shadowy figure flows large appendages out through the gap in the wall were Ornament fell, retrieving the corpse of its guard. Then sending out the same appendage and retrieving the fainted Vexation, both changelings disappearing into the strange creature's body.

"What the hay? Did you just eat some other pony?-" Peaches yells at the shadow trying not to throw up onto the floor "-I have no idea what you just did but that was WEIRD!"

"Oh, you ignore the fact that I build a device disguised like a castle that emits synthetic love for them to feed on? They came to me as simple changeling workers and I made them into mighty warriors. Too bad it came with a slight price, as one may say... and no I did not eat them, why would you think that? I got them out of harm's way much like you did for the Pegasus when she was frozen."

"Oh, gosh, ok I guess that's better than I thought…" Peaches looks slightly embarrassed as she looks away for a few short moments.

The shadowy figure forms back to the form of a unicorn, but not for very long as it seems like some pony is getting antsy. Lucky lets out another holy beam towards the strange creature. As it hits the shadowy figure it just passes right through it like the smoke it is.

"Oh I almost felt that. Try again later?"

"This has gone on long enough!" Dream Prism interrupts "You are the one leading that cult! You are the one that has waged this war against us! It ends now!"

"I hardly think that a fight between two changelings and a group of ponies is a war…" The shadowy figure tries to joke once again.

"Something is very off about this thing, I would like to say it reminds me of Discord but he is reformed now and never stooped to this level. This thing keeps changing shape, we can't harm it, and it has weird comebacks… what's the deal?" Peaches tries to rationalize the situation once again.

"Oh now I am a weird thing? You ponies are hilarious! Maybe we should make you all insane next! Nothing is more fun that insanity, especially when it fuels something productive, oh like me…"

Dream lays out an amulet shaped like an Alicorn, chants a few time and the air around her begins to shift. Bringing in the shadowy figure alarming it greatly, as it turns to flee glowing red chains clench onto its squirming body. A smirk appears on Dreams face and the battle's end is in their sights.

The smoke creature lets out a bursting laugh. "Oh so now I see the irony, this is your way of giving me a physical body just like I wanted is it not?"

"Oh shut up you stupid, smoky, foggy, shadow thing." Dream joins in on the childish name calling.

Before departing back to the village Dream makes use of Lucky's mysterious eyes and they free the two princesses, Celestia and Luna from the box the shadowy figure was holding. They fear the worse and have to quickly head back, leaving the care of the newly made "alicorn amulet" to the care of Dream Prism as she was the one who made it.

Back at the town of Verre Dream Prism had the amulet sealed into a glass case. Everything was becoming more peaceful and happy as more and more of their troubles subsided and most of the town's ponies came back from their insanity filled slave trip.

On the train ride home the three ponies are talking, when suddenly Peaches and Lucky begin to stare at Rain Breeze with somewhat questioning and teasing looks. "So... what was it you were saying when you were turned to obsidian?" the two ponies grin and ask the Pegasus. Her face turns a bright red and she hides behind a bench. The ride back home will surely be better than the one to the town. Maybe not for the rain loving pony though, she has a long ride home if she wants to keep her feelings to herself. The feelings of happiness are cut short. As the ponies realize that they had grown closer to each other than what they had thought.

"So, what do we do now? I don't really have a place to return to after this…" tears swell up in the blue pony's eyes. "No pony in town likes me, there's no need for a weather pony that can't catch up with the other Pegasi."

"And my peach stand isn't doing very well were I came from either…"

"I never realized that every pony was in the same boat as me. No one needs a pony like me in a farming town. My parents are gone and I can't afford the rent of any places around." The multicolored unicorn begins to cry as the memories of a childhood without parents fill her mind.

A group hug later and some silence settles all three down. They all agree on a plan, report to Canterlot then go from there. Either head back to the town of Verre were it all started, their new friends are there anyways. Find some other town to live in, or they could even travel to other places around Equestria. Lucky's main idea is to go back to Verre and learn magic from Dream Prism; she desperately needs it as this new "ability" she has gained may cause chaos and destruction wherever she goes if not properly cared for.

A few weeks later back at Dream's tent like house the alicorn amulet has gone missing...


	3. Resurrection of the Dead

A few months have passed sense Lucky, Rain, and Peaches had returned to Canterlot and had spoken to the princesses following the incident involving the obsidian castle. They had stayed a few weeks in the nearby house that Celestia had for them while they figured out where to go and what all had happened. The government was somewhat in chaos from how easily a couple unknown intruders pony napped the princesses. The Town of Verre had to rebuild slightly and rehabilitate its members that were abducted by the castle and its cult.

With only a matter of weeks passing the alicorn amulet had gone missing, throwing even more chaos and worry into the mix. Dream Prism had it under close watch in her house locked away, but it went missing while she reported the town's condition to Canterlot the day before. Only Dream should have known the way to get it out of its case, but once she returned it was missing without a trace left and none of the spells broken. A search team has been sent out by Celestia and Luna during day and night to find it; no progress has been made thus far.

The obsidian castle and its cave networks have gone completely missing, absurd to think about but the truth. The search team sent out by Canterlot was unable to find it by air, or ground. The cult must have moved it somewhere else or it must have crumbled and the cult dispatched to a new life.

Progress has been made though; Lucky, Peaches, and Rain one night were all sitting in their temporary home in Canterlot discussing their situation on what they would do after everything calmed down. It was a topic they wanted to discuss, but had avoided because they didn't want to separate after being with each other for so long, and with their homes not seeming like homes, they were eager to move anyways.

A soft knocking hit the door of their room and Lucky got up to answer, opening the door without a sound as Celestia comes in and she motions her guards to stay outside.

"Sorry Princess, we didn't know you were coming or else we would have… made some food and cleaned up this place. It's not as clean as when you invited us here sadly…" The multicolored yellow and blue haired unicorn awkwardly smiles at the princess.

"Oh, no need to worry yourselves, I should be apologizing. I usually would not be visiting any pony at this hour in the night, especially without warning. But this is not anything formal, just rather… friendly advice from some pony that can get you some special privileges." Celestia lets out that wink and slight smile she does every once and a while.

"Wait, privileges?"

"Yes, I managed to get you girls something I think you all will enjoy-" Celestia lifts up a rolled up letter with the Equestrian symbol and begins to read "-Lucky Diamond, Dream Prism has accepted you as a student to help you learn how to control your newly learned powers."

"I was just about to ask her about that…" Lucky looks up towards Celestia while wondering how she always seems to know what to do in the right times.

Celestia brings out another scroll, unraveling it while putting the previous one away. "Rain Breeze, you have been enrolled into the Verre medical clinic and will be taught various medical techniques and first aid, assuming that is something you are interested in. They are in need of any help they can get with the wounded form that castle."

"That sounds ok with me," Rain lightly whispers from the corner.

"And Peaches, I have found you a… rather unique combat instructor… I think you will enjoy it after you figure it out, so try not to quit or lash out too soon." Celestia lets out a short giggle with a pleased look on her face.

Peaches' look of happiness is quickly filled with slight confusion. "Where is this combat instructor anyways? It sounds like you managed to get every pony else in Verre so I hope they are to?"

"Well, not quite. But they are not that far away. And on the topic of Verre, I think Honey Darling has you three a place to stay and will inform you on everything else once you arrive there. You may leave whenever you see fit." Celestia rolls the scrolls then puts them back with her light levitation from her horn.

"What's wrong Peachy? You have that look like something's wrong again." Lucky ask her friend as Celestia walks out the door and goes back to her castle. "I thought you wanted to 'put up more of a fight'?" The unicorn lowers her voice and tries to act all buff to mock her friend in a playful way.

"Oh it's not that, we just have to ride that darned old train again…" Peaches' voice slightly trails off as she looks to the ground.

One of Celestia's letters appears above Peaches and lands on top of her head just about making her kick the air in fright. It reads "The train ride won't be quite so long this time; we cleared some rubble that was blocking the way that it would normally take through the mountains."

"What the heck! Does she stalk us or something?" Peaches stomps on the letter and her friends giggle behind her. Another letter appears and hits Peaches on top of the head, this time reading "Nope"

The three make their way onto the train in the morning, taking their things with them. Celestia was right; the ride was much shorter than before. Upon arrival in Verre they are greeted by the townspeople and shown around the town to all the, now undeserted, buildings. The hospital, where Rain will be spending her free time, is up and running again with full speed. A new house has been constructed in the middle of town, flowers planted in the middle and everything.

The Town is filled with new ponies, some the trio recognize. While some are new ponies that they assume are from the enslaved group rescued from the castle, now nursed back to health. There are stands selling different things in the town market, flowers planted pretty well anywhere they can be that would look decently. And now, amazingly, the town looks like any other perfectly normal Equestrian town.

Familiar green eyes come to the attention of the three ponies, an all light honey colored pony with brown mane and tail makes her way to the three. "I see you are all jumping right to the greatest attraction already!"

"Honey Darling! How is a house the greatest attraction?" Lucky greets the earth pony with a question yet again.

"I am sure that Celestia told you that we had a place for you to stay?" Honey points back towards the house, putting on a little bit of a playful face and tone while doing so.

"You don't mean… This is our house? We can't possibly take such a large debt from the town!" Lucky raises a hoof into the air as if to raise the effect of what she has said more.

"And we can't just let you three go unpaid for solving our 'plague' as the guards called it can we? Besides, we would love for you three to live here."

The three look back at the house, plenty large enough to fit three ponies in it, a happy home in the middle of the town that started their new lives. "I guess if you put it that way…"

The three begin to unpack their things into their new home. Each pony has their own bed, their own closets, everything they could ask for and more compared to what they had. Filled with all the things they would need to be comfortable, including a sofa big enough for themselves and friends if they ever invited others over.

"Your classes begin as soon as possible, Lucky and Rain you two should know where to go. Peaches, we will show you to the train when you are ready in the morning." Honey Darling makes her way out the door but is stopped by Lucky's voice, on the brink of tears.

"Thanks, you have no idea what this means to us."

~Meanwhile in the obsidian castle~

One of the cult members is walking down one of the long hallways in a lab coat. Then an all too familiar shadow begins to form around him and a voice rings into the air.

"Has the machine been repaired fully yet?"

"How long have you been back? I thought they sucked you into that amulet?" The scientist looking pony says it as if he has been startled, but his body language never changes.

"Oh you couldn't have actually though that worked? I am one with this castle; I simply let them take a bit of my power. Hopefully with any luck some pony will steal it hearing of its magic potential, and then we will gain a very powerful brother…" The smog swirls in the air with every word.

"But how do you know they will join us?"

"This amulet they made does not simply have just my power; it has a bit of my desires and psyche along with it."

"Oh, you plan too much ahead for me." The pony in the lab coat snickers to himself.

"Be you are our scientist, I hope you are smarter than that?" The black smoke swirls around the other pony.

"Yes, but one cannot hope to understand your power, at least not all of it."

The two have made it into the room where Peaches broke the last machine, this time a new machine has been built in its place. A large, blank room that has recently been refurbished recently, instead of dirt walls and floors it has obsidian like the rest of the castle. The machine appears like a large pillar in the middle of the spacious room, encased in a clear material.

"This machine serves the same purpose as the last one… managing the magic we gain and sending it around the rest of the castle." Like a teacher leading children on a field trip the lab coated pony begins explaining the new machine to his leader.

"I know full and well what it does, I am the castle. I know what happens in this place like my own body, but thanks for the explanation. Thanks to you this castle is what it is today and I commend you for that. Perhaps if we ever recruit new members your speeches will be used."

"You give me more pleasure than I deserve. Should we head onto the next machine, the one that you are probably looking for more?" Once more his body language does not change, just his speech ever so slightly wavering.

"Yes, let's head to _that_ one."

The two walk into a large, very clean room with a simple pillar in the middle. A strange, mechanical pillar at best, only reaching partway down to the floor leaving enough room for a large pony to stand underneath it. A switch is on one of the walls and the scientist goes to it. Wretched Darkness, the smoke like creature, forms into a pony like figure before opening up its side releasing the corpse of Ornament and Vexation. Both bodies fall to the ground alongside a small poach of gray dust, similar to that released when Regal was defeated.

"First we shall reanimate Regal; we don't want him blowing away now." The scientist chuckles at the rather awkward joke.

"I also appreciate the changes done to this machine. With what you have done to it and what I have done to it with my magic and through the castle, our members should be near immortal this time." Wretched Darkness heals back the large opening in his side that the bodies came from, returning himself to a earth pony like form made of smoke.

"Once again you give me too much credit; I am simply your servant. If my work pleases you I am happy beyond words."

Wretched Darkness places all the dust under the pillar that is halfway hanging from the ceiling. A loud hum fills the room; magic energy fills the pillar and shoots down onto the dust. It blinds every pony in the room until the magic dissipates. A familiar gray and black brute of a pony is under the pillar like machine. It has resurrected the dead, brought the already near immortal guard back to life and this time with something a bit… off about him. Something other worldly is given off by his body.

"Success! Regal, how do you feel?" The scientist celebrates by turning the machine off.

Silence

"I guess that means he is the same Regal as before… sorry but he seems to be mute as ever. Our machine as failed you sir." The scientist's head bows in shame.

"No, you have not failed. Regal is as alive as ever! Look at him, sure he may still be unable to speak, but we are still graced by his presence." Clearly pleased with the results, the shadowy figure comes closer to Regal and helps him from under the machine. Dying and coming back must really take its toll on a pony. "Regal, I am sorry you died before today, but it was not in vain. For you are back with us, and this time you will not have to worry about pain or death ever again! Your body has been reborn, your strength tenfold at least, and I depend on your still. So please forgive me."

The unicorn nods slowly and begins to take his own steps as his soul begins to bond to its newly formed body. The shadowy figure picks up Ornament and places the corpse under the machine and the doctor flips the switch, a familiar scene takes place and another nightmare is reborn. The same thing takes place again as Vexation is revived. Now all three deceased have been brought back, and the changelings at least are expressing their thirst for vengeance.

The group makes their way back to the innards of the castle. They find their selves in a large dining room filled with the cult's members. Wretched Darkness, Ornament, Vexation, Regal, and the scientist take the throne area and the cult applauds and cheers with their leaders reborn.

A single cloaked pony makes their way up to Wretched. "I am sorry to interrupt, but we have a visitor and they are asking for you _by name_. No pony ask for you by name, sir."

A smirk appears on the scientist's face. "Oh, could this be that amulet you were speaking of?"

Wretched makes a stand and begins to walk towards the doorway, the rest of the newly revived group and the scientist stand and walk with him. They follow the messenger pony to the outer reaches of the castle.

"We have reached the holding room where I told her to stay, the pony is inside." The cloaked messenger backs away so the others can make their way inside the room.

Wretched opens the door to see the affects of his amulet on an otherwise normal pony. Their skin color is a tan-ish color, but so light that it is almost a white color. Spiked yellow and black stripped hair shaped much like the DJ from Ponyville the last time they had seen the hair style. A cutie mark of lighting to match the rest of this Pegasus, a physically fit one at that, but the thing that pleased Wretched the most was the fact that she was wearing his amulet, and thus their cult has grown by another member.

"Welcome, sister, to your new home. What may we call you?" Wretched bows to welcome the new pony, if he had a face it may be smiling.

The pegasi's head snaps back to face the group, an insane smile on her face. Her eyes are so dilated that only a hint of her blood red irises can be seen, the irises and pupils are so small that it looks unnatural, bloodshot with insanity. The affects of the amulet have been shown; no pony could have been like this without that amulet's effects.

"I think I was Crimson Lightning." The pony begins to let out a sickly giggle for no apparent reason.

"Good, come inside and meet the rest of us, Crimson."

~Back in Verre~

"Well, I guess we begin training our new skills in the morning girls." Lucky yawns as she gets ready for the night.

"I don't want to do any surgeries…" Rain begins to shiver.

"You shouldn't have to, not on your first day at least." Lucky tries to comfort her friend with her knowledge on the subject, however small it is she knows that a novice will not be performing any surgeries.

"I am still wondering' what this 'combat instructor' is going to be… I never thought I would be cut out for any sort of combat. And why would we need it anyways?" Peaches looks out the window towards the moon.

"After what happened three months ago with that weirdo fog thingy we need to be able to defend ourselves I guess. That's all I can figure out with it-" Lucky sits next to her friend by the window "-after all, we all heard the news. The castle just disappeared, I have a feeling this is not over yet…"

Morning arrives fast and the three split up and go their separate ways, well at least until night time when they would come back home. Lucky to Dream Prism's house to learn magic, Rain goes to the hospital to learn medical training, and Peaches goes onto a train to learn some new combat of some sort.

"Hello, Dream, I have come like you wanted." Lucky walks up to Dream's house like she was told to do.

"Come on inside, we will start as soon as we can." With this greeting from Dream's voice, Lucky opens the door and walks inside.

"So… why do we need to start as soon as we can anyways?"

"I am sure you have felt it to, this new power you wielded in the battles three months ago was not temporary. And it was not a joke, it was something we need to look at and get under control. We don't want you to lose control of it and hurt any pony would we now?" Dream once again seems to have a lot to say right away.

"I guess you are right… I have felt, uneasy to put it simply. It's hard to explain, it's like something's constantly watching. No, that doesn't make sense does it… umm…" Lucky puts a hoof to her chin as she trails off in thought.

"This won't make sense Lucky, because this is not what some ponies would call normal. But after some research I think you have some sort of ancient form of magic instead of the usual magic unicorns have." Dream levitates a book down from one of her shelves and onto the counter.

"But I can levitate things as normally as every pony else and do all the normal things. Wouldn't that all be different?"

"Not necessarily, I think it takes a certain amount of stress to awaken the holy and dark properties of your magic. This stress can be in the form of anxiety, battle, loss, or hopefully we can get you to the point where you can control it so you don't have to have stress to awaken it. And the only place I know to start is with self control training. First we will start with simple exercises-"

"BUT LUCKY SAID NO SURGURIES!" Rain's voice booms out into the town.

In the hospital's lobby a few ponies are sitting I chairs, their eyes huge as their attention is turned to the blue Pegasus hyperventilating in the middle of the room. It was nearly impossible to ignore that scream.

"You are not performing the surgery… your simply watching to get used to it." A nurse in a white gown tries to calm Rain down after the outburst loud enough to stop Dream Prism from talking on the other side of the town.

"Oh… I guess that's ok then… Sorry" As blue turns to blushing red on Rain's face the regular pony doctor walks in.

"The scream lets me know I am ready… did you forget to knock them out?" He snickers with his joke and the nurse whispers to Rain that he was joking, that he wouldn't harm any pony. They make their way to the medical room and find a small filly knocked out on the exam table. The nurse leans towards Rain before whispering to her, "We have her asleep already."

"How exactly did this happen?" Rain puts a hoof over her mouth at the shock of all the cuts, gashes, and injuries on the small filly.

"She was trampled in the nearby forest by a group of beast. We were the nearest hospital with the technology to fix her up. Many bones were broken and some punctured organs, we have to re align them and possibly stitch some things together."

Rain stands off the side out of the way as the doctors do their work, saving the life of the young filly.

Peaches gets off the train and heads up a series of steps towards a temple. A pony that appears half asleep is waiting for her at the top near the entrance. He is wearing a cloak and his mane has been cut a bit short.

"Hello, I was sent here by Celestia from Verre on that there train for some sort of combat training or something." Peaches slowly walks up to the other pony.

"Yes you have." He slowly opens his eye to face Peaches.

"I know I have…" Peaches' eye brows arch a tiny bit, she knows she can't let her anger get the best of her yet.

"And so do I."

"So… when do we start?" Peaches tries not to slap some sense into this know it all before her, instead she tries to redirect the conversation.

"Whenever you are ready."

"Well I guess I am ready?" _Alright, perhaps this is actually going to get somewhere._

"Come inside then, and let's see if you can even put up any sort of a fight."

"What do you mean if I can put up a fight?" Peaches' eye brows tighten and she runs up to the monk like pony to buck him, but misses and slips. The monk like pony moved slightly sideways and shoves her to the side forcing her down the flight of stairs she just climbed up.

"Now climb back up the stairs, you pony."

"You're a pony to!" Peaches growls in anger.

"You are correct."

"I know I'm correct!" Peaches runs up the stairs and inside the temple, shoving the other pony over as she makes her way inside. "Ha! Now who can't put up a fight!"

"I am going to have you expelled if you keep doing things like that… bullying my new student just like the last one." A larger pony with a few swords makes their war over to the stairs outside, the monk like pony has finally made their way back up them. "Be gone!" With a shove the monk imposter is down the stairs again and the sword carrying pony comes back inside.

"Sorry about that, he sits around here whenever I am supposed to get a new student and does that to them… I really should kick his a-"

"So… you are the combat instructor I was sent to see?" Peaches purposefully interrupts the swearing of another.

"Why yes, and you are Peaches I assume? I was told that you should be taught to carry a sword, and not any sword, but a very large sword… a very, very large sword for some reason…"

"Why?" Once again Peaches is stumped on the ways of Celestia's thinking.

"I don't know, you would have to ask the princess that one." The sword wielding pony shrugs the question off.

Right then another royal letter hits Peaches upside the head, it reads "because I said so" and then gets stomped into the ground. "What the hay is wrong with her!"

"Well, I guess that means we get started then?"

"I guess so…"


	4. Days in Training

~a few months ago~

"You must concentrate, flow the water from one vial to the other."

Inside a small cave outside the city Dream and Lucky are continuing their form of training. Lucky is sitting in the middle of a large stone lily pad in the middle of a pool of crystal clear water. In front of her are different vials, some have water while some don't. The cave sparkles with minerals in the ceiling, giving it that magical feeling.

The water that Lucky had flowing from the vials splashes to the ground and she stomps into a standing position.

"Why is this so hard?"

"The water flowing around this stone lily pad and under it interacts with the properties in the water that is in the vials. That is why this is a prime training location. You must try much harder at simple task to accomplish them here. Now try again, move the water from the first vial to the second, then the third, then the fourth."

Lucky continues to try and move the water with her magic from one vial to another.

~A month or so later~

"Good Lucky, keep the water where it is now."

Lucky is sitting in the same spot as she was with the vials. Except she has gotten used to the properties in the cave and now she is completely levitating the water as wavy, circular, shapes in the air, four in total around her.

"You can release the water back into the pool slowly now. That was very good Lucky, just unstable in its form."

"Maybe in a few weeks it will look better?"

"At this pace yes, that is a good spot to assume. But this last part is often the hardest, keeping the water perfectly circular for long periods of time requires patience."

~Current day~

"Perfect, keep that form a few more minutes."

The four orbs of water are pretty well perfectly circular, the surface of the water not moving a millimeter.

"Release."

"Oh, I didn't think you would be right about it being that hard to keep some water floating. But now I believe you, it must be this cave," Lucky is sweating and out of breath having to stop and get some air, "It's almost like the water under us is trying to suck the orbs down into it, it's weird…"

"Yes that it is. Now think of it as you and the powers you expressed when we assaulted the castle. If you force yourself too hard or exhaust yourself too hard you may lose yourself in the pool of water. But if you don't try enough to keep the balance in check, you will fall and be engulfed in the pool. You seemed to have a decent amount of control over it before, so really I think it comes down to you just knowing your limits and knowing yourself."

"Thanks Dream, so same time tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Lucky heads home, its night time in Verre, the door slowly opens as Lucky Diamond stumbles inside. Rain Breeze is sitting on the sofa eating some ice cream with an innocent look on her face. Lucky sets her saddle bags on the counter next to Rain's and plops down on the sofa next to her friends, a bowl of ice cream offered by Rain and accepted by Lucky which helps sooth the days pain and troubles.

"So, another rough magic training day trying to figure out your weird eyes?"

"I guess if you put it that way yes," Lucky shoves a spoon full of ice cream into her mouth, "except does everyone enjoy calling my eyes weird?"

"Just trying to lighten the mood… Speaking of moods, I wonder how Peaches is doing."

"I am sure she is fine. Wasn't she supposed to visit though? I thought Honey Darling said something about her not staying permanently there or something like that. Maybe we should visit her; if we are having a rough time I am sure 'combat training' can't be any easier. "

"Let me finish my ice cream first."

"I didn't mean now, it's a bit late don't you think? How was your day anyways?"

"Well it was mainly a seminar between many of Equestria's top doctors and nurses. Nothing too stressful like that severed-"

"Whoa I am eating, let me eat in peace today… unless you want to use CPR already."

Outside the wooden windows the sun is setting. Being this tired isn't helping the sword training or the staying up late that Peaches is having to get used to. While she is looking out the window and dozing off her instructor takes to opportunity to swing his wooden training sword at hers and knock it out of her mouth.

"All this time and you still can't do any better than that?"

"Well it doesn't help that its midnight!"

"Take this seriously and we can all leave then!"

Peaches picks up the wooden sword yet again. Eyebrows arched angrily on both of their faces. They exchange a few blows with the training swords then back away. Repeating a few times until the instructor takes out a second training sword.

"Now hey! That ain't fair, you can't grip a sword with your hooves enough to hold two swords and if your mouth is big enough to hold two then that proves what I said the other day! You keep doing all these crazy things but you won't even tell me your name yet!"

"Who said I would use my hooves? If you want to learn combat that badly then shut up and learn."

The instructor pony bends his front leg and grips the sword with the arch created by the leg, balancing the sword there. He throws the sword up in the air, lunges forward with a swing of the sword in his mouth at Peaches. Then as the sword in the air comes closer the ground he catches it with his tail and swings it into the same place on Peaches' training sword that the first sword had hit causing her to fall backwards from the force of the strike.

"There, that's how you use two swords doing all these crazy things."

"Hmmf"

"You are improving though; remember when you first got here? You wouldn't have been able to block that first blow. But now you blocked both blows, you just need to work on your reaction time and strength."

"When can I go see my friends anyways? I was supposed to have went home and saw them by now, that's what we agreed on."

"Hmm, how about if tomorrow you can block that move I just did _without_ falling I can give you a little while off. But not very long, we don't want you getting all weak on us now do we? Now off to bed, in the morning I will let you train however you like _without _my help in whatever way you want using whatever you have available. That way it may be a bit more exciting, and maybe you will have some tricks to use. Meet me back here at, hmm let's say, two in the afternoon?"

"Finally you give me some freedom!" Peaches yells as she walks off to her bed chambers down the hallway in the back of the large training room. She is quick in bed exactly like the trainer said so she can get up early in the morning to train freely and kick the guys flank. Ya, that's what she would do, wake up and train her butt off to kick the guys flank…

~Verre~

"What do you mean we are ordered to stay here and leave them alone?" Lucky asks Honey Darling as Rain panics in the back.

"I wish I had answers for you two, but I was told that she is in some very important training right now and that we must wait a little while longer before we are able to see her."

"As long as it's only a little while longer I guess, can we at least know how she is doing?"

"Oh don't worry. She is doing great; she is getting tired out a bit, but doing well. I heard that she is progressing faster than anticipated and should be able to come back sooner than expected."

"Oh are we going to get an ear full when we get back… if she is having it any worse than we are make it two ear full's."

The two mope home slowly, Rain has calmed a bit after hearing that her friend did not die from some freak sword accident. By the time the two arrive back at their house it's still night time and they both agree it's time for bed.

"So we still all have more stressful training to look forward to… I never thought I would say this but I have had enough of magic for a while… I am ready for a break."

"We still have ice cream!"

"No amount of training will keep too much ice cream off us Rain… but that does sound nice right now."

~The Training Area~

(Thunk) "Ow… what the." Peaches realizes that she fell out of bed, she had forgotten that she never brought her alarm clock with her and that the instructor had been waking her up every morning, but with him leaving her alone for the day she slept in. As she looks out the window she realizes that it's a lot later than sleeping in, Celestia's bright sun is wide in the sky.

Peaches runs crashing through the door frantically yelling "what time is it?" to the other student that is left inside the dojo like building. Sweeping the floors he looks up then over at Peaches "Why its twelve thirty."

Peaches gathers up her training sword and everything else she can into a pile in her room. A plan strikes her head the minute she sees the wood working tools and ribbon she found. Her sword is wood, she found a metal ring that screws into the wood, then she also found some very strong blue ribbon that is easily as long as she was. The thing that surprises her the most is that the metal ring is large enough for her to fit her hoof inside, leaving its purpose unknown.

Around two in the afternoon the two ponies meet in the training room like yesterday. The instructor comes with his two swords at his side. Peaches walks in holding her sword in her mouth. The very bottom of the sword, what would be known as its pommel or the counter weight at the end of its hilt, had the metal circle screwed into it and then the blue ribbon tied onto that. The ribbon flowed in the wind as she walked.

The instructor, still without a name, begins to laugh at what Peaches has accomplished in the 24 hours. "What the heck is that? I am expecting you to have something mighty amazing to have had time to personalize your training sword with a ribbon!"

"Well why don't we just find out?"

The two come closer in the middle of the room and begin like they had yesterday. Peaches clenches the sword as her instructor begins his assault. One sword flies into the air as the other comes clashing into Peaches', the sword in the air comes falling and the instructor catches it and thrust his entire weight into one swing with the sword into the same point of the last swing before his opponent gets time to recover their defenses.

But this time Peaches does not fall, she does not take the clash head on with her sword. She twists her sword sideways slightly so the wooden blade slides against her trainers, successfully blocking the sword from hitting her body in any way.

Her trainer continues his assault with a loud outburst of laughter, "Whatever you have done seems to have worked! It has been a long time sense some pony has been able to block that move!"

The trainer pony begins to twist his whole body and pivots on one hind leg holding one sword in his mouth and the other in the bend of one of his front legs. The other front leg landing on the ground giving him the balance to strike Peaches' sword yet again with the sword in his mouth, then with the sword in his front leg.

After the assault Peaches let's go of her sword and grabs it by the ribbon swinging it in circles in the air, hitting the trainers swords multiple times. She then continues to use the metal ring with her hoof, swinging the sword with a little more control at the weaker points she spotted with her last strikes using the ribbon until finally she grabs the sword with her mouth and strikes with all her power against him, causing him to actually defend seriously.

"I think that's enough for now, you proved that your ribbon is worth keeping. I guess I won't make you take it off. But tell me, what did you do all day for training?"

At first Peaches opens her mouth to lie to her trainer and tell him that she was training out back somewhere, but then she notices that both of them are out of breath. "To tell you the truth, I forgot to wake up and slept past lunch. Then I had no clue what to do and just happen to find some random tool and items. I don't know why but I decided to put them all on the sword." An awkward grin comes over her face and she begins to sweat even more.

The instructor laughs once again, almost to tears. "You mean I was brought to a sweat by a pony that slept past noon then randomly attached stuff to a wooden sword and came in here the way you did? You have to have had some sort of training before this right? You didn't learn this from just watching me did you?"

"Well, uhh, I don't know…"

"I guess that means you are getting close to being ready then… Follow me; there is something I must show you."

The two walk down the hallway that led to the instructor's bed room. At the end two doors presented their selves, one led into his room and was left open. The other creaked open as he opened it. A stair case was all that could be seen, pitch black beyond that. He enters his bedroom and switches a switch behind the door, which turns on some lights in the stairway. They continue down the stairs into a large basement with numerous swords and weapons hung on the wall.

As they reach the end of the room they reach a small shrine like set up with a single, very large sword hung on the wall. The shrine is more like a shelf, two small candles are lit under the sword and the entire shelving unit seems to encase the whole wall.

The instructor opens the case and retrieves the sword. The shiniest thing Peaches has ever seen. A double edged sword, both sides of its blade appear sharp. It is completely symmetrical, even down to the hilt and pommel. The cross guard rectangular in shape but beautiful no doubt, engraved with swirls and wonderful markings.

At the very end of the hilt, where the pommel should be, was instead a large metal circle much like the one Peaches had screwed into the wooden training sword. A large chain is attached to that circle that dangles down for quite a ways.

"That chain, is for extended reach. Like how you used the training sword earlier." The trainer offers some advice on the sword to the puzzled student as she stares at the sword.

While the thing is beautiful, it is a monster of a sword! Huge compared to anything a normal pony would carry, it will have to be carried on a pony's back when not being used. It's at least as long as she is, and its weight must be tremendous as it is made of metal.

"I believe this is yours now," The trainer flips the sword over holding it by the blade, not being cut by it for some reason while handing it over to Peaches, "This sword has a wonderful history about it, dark none the less but unusual for those of us that know it."

Peaches sets up the saddle bag like sheath that she was given with the sword on her back to carry it. Even the sheath is unusual with this sword. It's more like a bandanna or something of the like, it just wraps around her a few times on her waste to cushion the sword so she doesn't get hurt by it. Then it wraps around the sword a few times just enough to hold it on, but it doesn't even attempt to hide the blade or cover it.

The sword is surprisingly manageable, not as heavy as she feared; it is heavier than anything she used in training so she has more training to get used to. She has to get her strength up to get used to it.

"I don't think I can take something like this from you, I mean I haven't paid you or anything."

"Celestia has handled everything, no need for you to worry. If Celestia thinks you can handle that sword then I am in no position to argue with her."

"What good is it if it doesn't have a blade or a tip sharp enough to cut anything though?"

"Oh it does, it's just not a normal sword. You need to have some patience my dear Peaches. This sword only will gain a blade when the wielder is truly in need of one, but when you do not need one it will not show itself."

"It will do what now?"

"You will find out soon enough, when the time is right the sword will show you what I mean. You know that even us Earth ponies and the Pegasi have magic like unicorns right?"

"Uhh, I guess? Just something about we can't use it for magic or something like that?"

"Exactly, this sword will use that power and thus you have a blade. That's why it's so special, and why only a special pony can wield it. Now go on to bed, we have a lot of training to do tomorrow. Leave visiting your friends up to me, I have something special in mind for it."

"But when in the hay are you going to tell me your name?"

"Oh yes, of course. I am Prized Blade; I know that's a rather ironic name for a combat trainer that deals in swords and a rather funny sounding name. But a name it is. Please, just call me Blade or something cooler than Prized, for the sake of keeping my school as high ranking as it is."

The two split up and their respected bed rooms, as Peaches walks off to her room Blade walks into his. He pulls out a royal letter he had received earlier that day and opens it, "Yes Celestia, I think we have found the one." He then begins to write a letter back to the princess.

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_Today Peaches has proven to me that she has what it takes to be a fine sword wielder. She stood up to that technique without even training for it. She forgot to wake up, slept past noon, then came in and challenged me after losing. All she had differently was her training sword with the items you asked me to set out. She instinctively attached them exactly like the real thing._

_Best of all the sword accepts her so far, nothing unusual yet. We will see how everything goes in the morning when we start training up again. I will let her keep it with her even when she heads off with her friends but I will do my best to keep an eye on her. To make sure the sword does not go berserk on them and harm any pony._

_Your Faithful Combat Instructor,_

_Prized Blade_


	5. Training ends with a Clap of Thunder

"Another long day of training…" Peaches stumbles into the main room where yesterday she had put up a fight with her wooden sword. Today she has the new, real sword on her back and will forever keep it with her.

The doors slam open and a familiar blue Pegasus tackles the orange earth pony, tears of joy now flowing from Rains eyes. The multicolored unicorn Lucky comes walking in soon afterwards and trots up to the two who are lying on the floor.

"Surprise!"

"It's a bit late for that isn't it? And I haven't been gone that long Rain, no need to cry…"

"I see you two got here quicker than I thought. I didn't think you would get here right away in the morning after getting the note…" Blade rubs his eyes and walks over to the three friends.

"Ahh, well we have a caring little pegasus to thank for that one…" Lucky points over to the still crying Rain that's attached to Peaches on the floor, "She grabbed me and took off as fast as possible and we ended up here faster than I thought possible."

"Wait, she flew both of you here, through the night, by herself?" Secretly in the back of his mind he was watching the sword on Peaches' back, making sure it didn't cut or decide to destroy anything, especially Rain.

"Pretty much ya…"

"Does this mean I get a day off or something?" Peaches tilts her head up towards Blade, "cause that would be nice if that's what this means."

"Sorry but not the whole day, just part of it. I figured you might want to show off a little means you friends are here. The one seems to like you an awful lot…"

"Cut it out, she's just happy to see me you old goofball."

"Who calls people goofballs anymore anyways?"

Blade turns his attention back to Lucky and Rain, "Anyways, I am Blade, Peaches' trainer."

"I'm Lucky, the crying Pegasus on the floor with Peaches is Rain Breeze. She's a bit… emotional at times."

"I've heard that you two have also been doing training, I am guessing you have been working with magic but what has Rain been doing?"

"She's been working in a hospital."

"Oh, she doesn't seem quite… quite-"

"Right for the job?"

"Ya, I guess that's how one could put it." They both exchange a short laugh.

The group head to the training room, once again it is large and empty. Rain and Lucky take a seat by the wall while Peaches and Blade begin training. Peaches grabs the chain on her new sword unsheathing it and pulling it up to her mouth where she can get a better grip on it. While Blade pulls out a few long dulled swords from a rack against the wall.

"Wouldn't be any fun to use sharpened swords now would it?"

"Wait a minute," Lucky begins to get confused already, "You mean Peaches has a sword that can't even cut anything?"

"You're a unicorn, can't you sense something different about that sword? Or do I have to explain this again?"

"Well, it does seem a bit different than just a normal sword."

"Exactly, it makes its own blade, but only when necessary. That's what we are training for now, well and also our dear Peachy over here weighs about as much as the metal weapon she is swinging around. If she can't learn to control it better than we are just asking for trouble."

"Are you calling me weak or something?"

"I don't know are we Peaches?"

The two begin to clash swords like usual. Swinging them chaotically with the bends of their legs, the tips of their tails, any part they can use to confuse their opponent. Peaches can also use the chain and circular metal pieces on her sword for her advantage in this apartment. Flinging the heavy object into the air, letting it plummet to the ground on top of her opponent, then flinging it in another direction with the chains attached to it, catching it in her mouth to throw a few heavy swings in, twisting and turning her body with the sword then landing a final blow as she raises the sword in the air and crashes it down.

All of which have been blocked by Blade, showing his seniority in this field. Both ponies seem to be enjoying themselves now that they are both using real weapons. Peaches now seems to be getting the hang of this whole thing, what a difference a real sword can make.

"You seem to have gotten the hang of it already; I think all you are lacking is experience. And that's not something I can teach. You are welcome back anytime, even if it's just to visit."

"Wait, are you saying-"

"Yep, you have officially graduated. You are free to go do whatever you want. But you're not free to remove your friendship status with me." Blade sticks a sparkly "friends forever" sticker onto Peaches' forehead.

"Sometimes you creep me out, you know that? I don't know if I should feel warm and fuzzy inside or if I should run away crying for help…"

"Come here Lucky" Blade motions with his hooves for Lucky and Rain to come over.

"Yes?"

"Can you enchant this sword for me? I would like it to be attached to Peaches, so if she ever loses it she can find it easily."

"Sure, just give me a second." Lucky quickly writes a spell onto the sword. Then the same spell onto Peaches.

"Ow! Lucky! That was on purpose wasn't it?"

"No I promise! Sorry, I haven't done this spell in a while."

_Alright, that's all I needed to see. If she could write a spell on the sword without it going nuts on every pony in the room, then that means it accepts its new owner. I must write a letter to Celestia telling her the news._

"I will be stationed in Canterlot if need be. Apparently Celestia and Luna think my skills can be put to use with the royal guards in times of need. So if you ever need anything and I am not here, check there."

"Sounds like a plan, just don't get one of those swords stuck in the wrong pony now. I might be a little upset if that were to happen."

"I am not planning on it, at least I hope not."

"Anyways, girls have you finished your training?"

"Pretty much, we finished up last night before we got the note. Our basic training is done but we can continue whenever we like. Just a break is nice."

"We have to ride that stupid old train again don't we…"

~Obsidian Castle~

"This is our new sister, Crimson Lightning!"

A loud applause breaks out over the large dining area, the entire cult is in this one room. The resurrected, the doctor, Crimson, and Wretched Darkness are all in the front of the large obsidian room.

"She will be staying with us, as a valuable member of our society. Regard her as a top ranking official equal to those of us up here."

Not a single reaction is presented from Crimson. Just the twitching, and dilated eyes that she would normally have sense her adoption of the amulet.

They begin to show her around the castle, all the machines, the chambers, the training areas, everything. Nothing is kept hidden from her. After all, Wretched did explain to the group that the amulet "bound her to the cult". She knew all the machines, and could navigate the castle corridors easily without assistance, showing that he was indeed correct. One of the messengers of the cult was behind them and interrupted it all though.

"Sir, we have a problem."

"What is it? It has better be good for some pony to disturb us while we welcome a new sister."

"The royal guard is here."

A large grin appears on Crimsons face, her head snaps to face Wretched and the messenger, "May I?"

"Of course, right outside the main gate."

Crimson disappears with a flash of light. Milliseconds later one loud clap of thunder can be heard accompanied by the screams of countless guards, shortly after it begins to rain. With another flash of light Crimson appears back in the room, as if nothing had happened.

"What in Equestria happened out there?"

"I took care of the guards."

One of the Pegasi cult members fly up to a window to pear outside, afterwards coming back to the ground. The Scientist, wanting to access the damage, is picked up by the Pegasus who then continues to fly him up to the window like he asked, and then they both land back on the ground. The scientist walks over to Wretched Darkness to explain the details.

"The bodies are gone; all that's left is blood soaked ground which is being washed by the rain."

is being washed by the rain."


	6. Memories in a Memoir

Nighttime, a clear night with all of the stars and the moon on display, street lamps light the paths for the ponies still outside. Some stores and buildings still have their lights on, including the late night convenience store.

"My whole body is numb from being on that train," Peaches jumps out of the train stretching like a cat woken from its sleep.

"If you two don't mind, can we make a quick run to the store before going home?" Rain quick checks her saddle bags for money for whatever it is she is planning to get.

"Sure, no need to rush getting back. Peaches hasn't seen the town in quite a while anyways, might as well start at the store. What is it you want anyways?"

"More ice cream…"

Peaches just about chokes and her eyes bug out, then a confused look comes over her face, "Wait, did we develop some sort of ice cream obsession or something while I was gone?"

"No, it's just that-"

A familiar unicorn, Dream, walks up to the three with a small package giving it to Lucky, "Why hello you three, I was just at your house but no one was there. You three always have perfect timing so I figured I would pass this along to Lucky, it's from your hometown. Celestia sent it my way saying it contained information that concerned your unusual abilities, but we both think that it would be best if you were to read it first."

"Umm, thanks? But what is it exactly, what is it about?"

"I have not read it, so I do not know. I was just told to pass it on to you once I had a chance," The unicorn slowly walks ahead, most likely towards her home.

Once inside the store they make their way to the frozen goods isle. Rain picking out the usual tubs of ice cream then checking out, making sure to get a few extra tubs means they have an extra mouth in the house now that Peaches has come back.

With a bowl in hoof and a large comfy sofa large enough for the three ponies, Lucky begins to open the package given to her earlier by Dream. Inside she finds a small notebook addressed with her name on it from Pure Diamond and Maroon Diamonds, on the inside it's a bundle of papers that have been bound inside the notebook for easier keeping. The purpose has been given away already; on the cover was a picture of Lucky as a small filly.

She begins to read and flip through the pages, making mental notes on the words inscribed inside. These are letters to her from some pony who had taken care of her back in the farming town that she had come from. The town where every pony treated her like some sort of plague, except her aunt and uncle, who had cared for her. They were both unicorns like her, so magic ran in the family.

She begins to read the pages while her friends sit by her side.

_This is hard, but important for you to find out sooner or later. You know that we have been caring for you for quite some time now, your aunt and uncle. We feel that, as we write this down, we will store these notes and give them to you later on so you can find more out about yourself and what truly happened to your parents. _

_You have probably wondered why every pony in this town treats you unfairly, or why they never talk to you the same way they do every pony else. It's hard to understand, and we want you to know that it's not your fault. They do have their reasons to be angry, but not at you, at a group that we hope is long gone by now._

_It was a cult that housed their selves in a large Obsidian Castle-_

At those words every pony in the room dropped their spoons and stopped eating.

_They were capturing ponies that were gifted in magic, mainly unicorns, but the occasional Pegasus or earth pony was thrown in just to see how it would go. The cult was thought, at first, to be merely a nuisance. But once they had started pony napping the guards stepped in, stopping them from taking any other ponies. The cult had to use only the ponies they had inside the castle, without napping any others out of the nearby towns, as the guards were close by. However; this did not stop the cult from making their moves._

_Your parents were some of the main ponies we had to fight them, and they were trusted by the royal guards in Canterlot to gather whatever info they could on the issue. There was only so much the royal guards could do; after all they do show up a bit easily don't they._

_Your parents were sending letters to Canterlot on any advances the cult made every chance they had, while the guards handled the main offensive tactics. But somehow the cults caught on to what your parents were doing, the day before the night you were born a new pony came to town. He had gray hair and wore a lab coat; we assumed he was a scientist from Canterlot or from some hospital somewhere. _

_The first thing he asked was where your parents lived, that he needed to speak with them immediately. A few of the town's ponies pointed him to your house and he moved along to speak with them. Rumors spread quickly that the baby was coming; we were all so happy and excited that you were coming. But why would a new doctor need to come when we had perfectly smart ones of our own? _

_That night when I went to your parent's home to check up on things no one answered, the door was left opened and no one was inside. We quickly told the royal guards who had been stationed around the town and a search was implemented. We couldn't wait though, we knew where they were taken, it was that blasted cult. They had taken our family and unborn and now they would pay._

_It was tricky but we managed to sneak our way into the cult, we knocked out a few of their weaker members outside the castle and put on their uniforms. Black cloaks completely covering a pony's body and face if you wore the hood up. Once inside we made our way to the "slave room" as some were calling it, it took a while but we managed to find it. Once inside we found your father, terrible condition, he could barely stand and looked as if he could die any minute. He told us that they had taken your mother to the back room to "harvest" the magic from her. He would have gone and rescued her himself but he was strapped down and unable to move until we had arrived and freed him from the shackles._

_As the three of us made it to the backroom, however; we found that it was too late for your mother, they had taken their revenge. Using their machine until all her energy was gone. All that was left was a little foal on the table in the corner, you. We all feared the worst, you weren't moving or anything. But that didn't stop us from grabbing you and trying to leave. _

_Guards had noticed us though, a couple barging into the room yelling at us. Your father tackled them onto one of the walls and frantically yelled for us to escape. The anxiety of the moment, mixed with our inability to fight an entire cult caused us to run out of the castle and escape back to the town. But before leaving through the doors, your father left us one request. He held up a small notebook which he had his name and your mother's name carved into it on the front. It was a list of names that they had been writing in all this time and trying to decide on one for you. He asked us to name you Lucky Diamond, the name your mother wanted the night the scientist came. _

_As more guards flooded in the back doors, we had to escape; leaving your parents behind, neither has been heard form sense. _

_We later found on the way out of the castle that they had run experiments on you before we arrived. They had machines that appeared to be used to infuse magic into items. We found a journal that roughly described what had happened, we would have included it with this but we didn't have a chance to take it with us._

_It simply stated that the experiment was a success, but the results would have to wait until later when the foal would develop magical abilities of her own. They had tried magic gathered from Celestia and around Canterlot from the guards, the holiest of forms. Along with that from their leader and various evil beings, the opposite of the holy magic energy gathered in the first "empowerment" as they called it. _

_We entered the town and rushed to the hospital, there the nurses and doctors revived you from whatever grim things that cult had done. They put you in their care overnight, but you were not in the path of death. That experiment had taken a toll on your health, however; the cult wanted you alive to see their work pay off._

_The town's ponies and leaders from Canterlot held a meeting the next day in our town hall to discuss what would be done with you. No pony knew what would happen with this experiment that they performed. No pony knew what would happen if you would lose control of it, or if it even did anything that would require you to control it. _

_Some wanted to "throw you out," they even discussed some drug used to quickly kill. Some wanted to exile you somewhere away from every pony that knew about the cult. Banishment to the moon with Nightmare Moon was presented. We felt that all of those were unnecessary and harsh. Celestia herself would not hear of that sort of treatment of a filly, especially one that had not committed a crime. She understood that you were innocent, and the sins fell on the cult. _

_After a long time of anxiety and anger, it fell onto us to take care of you. Something we were already planning on doing, so we gladly accepted the offer. We were warned that there were potential risk with bringing a filly, especially one that had been through as much as you, into our household, but we didn't care. We had raised children before and we could do it again, sure you may have a few magical problems later down the road but we can worry about that later._

_That same morning the Obsidian Castle along with its cult vanished. No warning, nothing was left behind. We assume it was because we had sneaked into their castle and retrieved you form their laboratories. _

_From then onwards you were treated differently, everyone felt that you were a reminder of the cult. And that you could lash out at any minute and kill every pony in the town. We tried to reason with them, that you were not a threat and that you were just a normal filly in the wrong place at the wrong time. But they still doubted it, they still resented everything. _

_Adults treated you wrongly because of the cult, while the children treated you wrongly because their parents did. Along with the fact that they thought you were different, or the fact that you were quiet._

_We still remember when you gained your cutie mark; it was a normal day of school except you never came home. It was past an hour later than normal, we decided that we needed to check out the school and find out where you were, usually you would tell us if you were going to the library or do anything after school._

_You weren't at the library though, you were in the playground. A group of larger students were surrounding you and bullying you along with another quiet classmate. They had both of you stuck in one of the house shaped play sets calling you names, kicking dirt, throwing stones, but the gates into the playground were closed shut and locked. It took us time to get through them and to where you were._

_Both of you were huddled together not giving in, you kept that other filly strong through the ordeal. Talking to her the whole time about what you two would do afterwards, and what she meant to the ponies that cared for her. You understood her; you gave her a chance and stood up for her. _

_A bright light came from you; your rainbow prism shaped cutie mark appeared right where it is today. Just like a prism you took the regular light and made a rainbow. It may sound strange but every pony is different, it's up to you to decide what it means. We have always assumed it meant that you could take the worse and make it better. Or that you could make others feel better by showing them the best in things._

_You spent the years growing up with that filly; you should really get in touch with her again soon. Even though you both have grown I am sure you both could still be friends._

_Your first years were rough, especially once you began school. But once you began to open up to the world; it began to open up, ever so slightly, to you. The bullies calmed down and ponies in the town would actually treat us like regular ponies, making life much easier._

As Lucky flips to the next page she notices that these next pages are ideas hastily jotted down by her parents, mainly on the history of the cult, its workings, and hypothesizing on it.

_This cult is ruled by a strict hierarchy, one ruler then a few under him. We assume that they are guards, scientist, and advisors. One is seen outside nearly all the time, Regal, an all gray unicorn that has near immortal healing powers. The cult must have used some sort of magic on the pony to make him this way. We never see him speak to any pony else in the cult. Royal guard after royal guard has been taken out by him as they try to enter. _

_Their leader appears to be some sort of strange, other worldly creature. It can change shapes at will, its body made of fog or some sort of smoke. Not much is known on it now, more will be written later as we find more._

_The castle they live in houses many machines that they use for tasks unknown to us. We have heard some of the cult's members speaking of machines that bind magic to items, machines that can bring the dead back to life. Or worst of them all, the one that sucks the life force, and magic, from ponies used in it. What they use it for we can only guess._

_We have stumbled upon a few documents that explain this cult's origin! Such luck we have today. The leader is in fact not a pony; no pony has any idea what it is. It could shape shift even as a physical being. It seems to embody insanity; perhaps its own mind caused itself to go crazy? But something made it turn evil; something made it turn on Celestia and Luna long ago. The princesses destroyed its physical body thinking they had defeated it, but they were wrong. It reformed from the energy left from their battle; the psyche left from when it was alive all added up and revived the immortal beast._

_After years of it restoring its Obsidian castle, ponies began to swarm to it after hearing how it nearly defeated Celestia and Luna. Power hungry fools that didn't know what they were getting into. It took years for it to build the castle from a simple castle, to the monstrosity it is today. He has the power of an army, hundreds of magical machines inside that thing he calls home. Now it is not just his home, he has been spiritually bound to that castle, he is the castle now. _

_One of the poor souls to first run upon the dark monster was Regal, the mute guard mentioned before. He has been mentioned as one of the co-founders of the cult. Along with the scientist that we see every once and a while, all gray hair is about all we can explain on paper. They must both be incredibly old. All we can figure out is that the leader has done something to them, perhaps even brought them back to life, or made them immortal, something like this may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. _

_The leader, Regal, and the scientist all gathered together forming the cult. One offering pretty well anything they needed, while the other two offered guard and smarts. It has been written down that Regal was mute upon arrival, for no apparent reason that we know of. If only we could get a hold of him or that scientist… then we could get some info._

_We can hypothesize that the beings true point behind the magic gathering machine is to gather enough magic to create his physical body again. There is a surplus of magic in that castle after he uses some for running the machine and the rest of the cult. _

_Once the royal guards found out about the cults pony napping and torturing, they put a stop to it quickly and tried to invade. That did not end well. A simple spying mission it was, a few sent inside as cult members, then they were to report back to Celestia as quickly as possible afterwards. Their motives were spotted by the cults many guards on the inside. The spies never came back out of the obsidian monstrosity. _

_After this set back the movements of the royal guards have been much more cautious. The battle between Celestia, Luna, and the cult's leader all those years ago must have been more dreadful than we can imagine. As they are planning this out more than one would think, some of the towns ponies are wondering why Celestia doesn't just come herself and end this. But it might not be that simple; perhaps she fears that she cannot defeat it without taking serious damage, or a more viable assumption is that perhaps the castle cannot be destroyed that easily. If the leader is part of the castle, then will the castle need to be destroyed to defeat the leader now as well? If so, then how would one destroy a castle that is technically alive?_

_None the less, the royal guard's protection and the guidance of Celestia has kept them from pony napping any more innocent lives, that we are all thankful for. _

The rest of the notes have been torn off, the cult must have gotten a hold of the rest when they pony napped Lucky's parents.

In the back of the notebook an address in Canterlot is scratched down onto the inside of the cover, along with the names of Lucky's aunt and uncle. Under it, it reads "We had to move to Canterlot, a lot has happened sense you started your adventure. The cult has made its move again, so we had to be given protection from them."

Tears swell in Lucky's eyes as she finally knows what happened to her parents, why she never got to see them, why every pony picked on her, why no pony would talk to her, why she has these strange abilities now of all the times.

And why this blasted cult is in her life, past and future. Their training will be put to good use, no pony else will be hurt because of this cult's ideals. They will destroy what her parents couldn't.


	7. Rebirth of a Monster

"Next Stop Canterlot!"

"That means us!" Lucky begins to levitate her notebooks into her saddlebags and get everything into place, making sure to double check the address in the one given to her by Dream earlier.

"So our plan is to meet with your aunt and uncle, then with Celestia and Luna their selves to discuss a plan on fighting the cult?" Peach wraps the large sword around her waist with the cloth like holder given to her, "I am not too sure they are going to be too supportive of us doing this…"

"Why else would they have us do all of this training? They must have known it was coming, or at least saw it as a possibility."

The three head out of the cabin of their train, heading into the streets of Canterlot to find Lucky's family. It took a while; many different ponies were asked were the address was but after a while it was found. A rather hidden away home close to the castle, rather small for such a large city as Canterlot but for two older ponies it must be good enough in their eyes.

Lucky knocks a few times on the door, a few faint steps can be heard in the distance then the door opens. Pure Diamonds, Lucky's unicorn aunt opens the door and quickly puts a hoof over her mouth.

"Lucky? Why come in I will get Maroon right away, please make yourselves at home."

Both Pure and Maroon Diamonds sit on their sofa next to each other, with the three visitors on the larger sofa on the other side of the room. A rather spacious house on the inside that what it seemed on the outside, still a bit small but it gives a different impression, very well organized compared to some other places they have seen. A brick fireplace with assorted picture frames and candles on the left side of the room, many of the pictures are of Lucky as a small unicorn growing up.

"Awe, look at the widdle Wucky," Rain picks up one of the picture frames with Lucky as a small filly in it; one as she had began school, and begins to look at the other pictures.

Mr. and Mrs. Diamonds let out a slight giggle to each other, Pure is the first to break the awkwardness, "So, these are Peaches and Rain we are assuming? We have heard so much about you two from Celestia."

"I told you she's stalking us…" Peaches eye brows arch slightly as she looks out the window to avoid attention.

"While we would like to keep this feeling in the air, it's likely impossible," Maroon interrupts slightly, "I assume that means you showed up now that means you got the notebook?"

"Yes, we did." Lucky grabs it out of her saddle bag and sets it onto the coffee table in the middle of the two sofas between them.

"We are sorry you were told this way, we just didn't want to tell you all that as a small filly…"

"It's alright, it has explained quite a bit to us with our… pest problem we have been having."

"As we have heard from Celestia, it seems that the cult has made its move yet again, this time bringing you three into it on purpose for whatever reason. Both of us have come up with an idea on how to end the leader's reign, if you are interested that is."

"We were hoping you two would have some sort of ideas on that, it's about time some pony stopped them."

Pure Diamond takes over the conversation, "As you three have probably noticed, there seems to be no way to harm their leader, Wretched Darkness as he calls himself. One would think that this would be a blessing for him, but it seems that it is trying to gain its physical body back. And like stated in those notes, he was once defeated in that same body."

"But he managed to reform afterwards, so wouldn't that be a problem?"

"Yes, but what if we managed to seal him away or weaken him so he couldn't? It may seem a bit… farfetched right now after facing him once before. But it's all we have to go on for now. We brought it up to the princesses and they began studying it with their science team, they told us to get back to them later on once you three were done with your training."

"So we were right earlier to bring it up to the princesses, I am assuming that we are to meet with them after we are done talking here then?" Lucky begins to pack her stuff again.

"Sure enough, it sure is funny how much alike you are to us."

The five make their way to the castle, a very short walking distance from the house. No resistance is made to keep them from entering; Lucky's family must be well known or have made arrangements with the royalty already.

"My dear students, right on time again." Celestia greets the group like normal with a smile, while Luna watches from the side.

"We are here about the research you were doing on taking down the cult?" Pure Diamond makes a small bow to the princesses as she makes her way into the room.

"Ah yes, _that_ topic. We have managed to come up with a few ideas on it," Celestia levitates the table from across the room closer to them, "We don't know if any of these will do the trick, but they should. One idea presented was that of using a simple sealing technique after defeating the leader," Celestia levitates a black box off the table then gives it to Lucky, "but that would not be an easy task, so another one of our researchers presented a special… we'll just say potion-"

"It's a poison, sister…" Luna breaks her own silence.

"Yes, poison is you must. That may weaken him making it much easier to seal him away into the device-"

"Box, sister."

"Yes, it's a box. Like I was saying the poison will make it much easier to seal him away into the box. It's not simply that straight forward though, you have to physically assault him enough to get him weak enough to use it on him _along with_ getting the poison onto or into him."

"Well, it's a start." Lucky puts the objects into the cushioned suitcase given to her by Celestia next.

"We even had a somewhat… difficult researcher that just wanted to send the being to the moon," Luna looks out one of the windows, clearly reminded of the last pony sent to the moon, "But one cannot simply do that, after all he is connected to the entire castle he lives in. It would be rather difficult to move a living castle to a different planetary orb."

"Speaking of which, how will we deal with the castle?"

"Leave that to the royal guards that we will have stationed with you three as you make your assault. They will take care of the weaker cult members and take care of the castle. Once you weaken the leader to the point where he stops fighting back they will take care of it."

"She means they will blow the thing up, we have a bomb squad." Luna interrupts again to explain what Celestia leaves out.

"Well, uhh, I guess that makes sense?"

"Right… well, see you two later then. We better get going; lots of catching up to do with these three!" Pure Diamond smiles and leads the group back out of the large room. They make their way back to the home of Lucky's aunt and uncle with confused looks on their faces.

"Luna, is something on your mind? Something seems to be troubling you."

"It's been years sense we last faced this _thing, _but when we did the first thing it tried to do was get us to hate each other. It tried to play around with our emotions like toys… I don't want those three going against it face first with their mind in a fog of confusion, it would simply aid their enemies." The whole time Luna has been looking towards the ground with her eye brows furrowed, deep thought and stress from the battle years before showing on her face.

"Which is why I instructed the Diamonds to do all in their power to get the three to open up their lives to each other, hopefully if they can understand each other more they will not have such problems? We have tried to supply them with equal training opportunities based on their decisions in life along with their hobbies, with that we can hope that there will not be jealousy or anger towards one another when their time comes.

The group of five ponies enter the room that they began talking in earlier; Rain immediately grabs a cute picture of Lucky and begins cuddling with it on the sofa next to Peaches and Lucky, causing Lucky to blush and everyone else to begin giggling like last time.

"So, do we get to hear anything about you two?"

"Well, were I came from I was just struggling to make a living off my job and small crop of peach trees. It was more of a hobby than anything, but what makes a pony happy is not something we can argue with I guess." Peaches surprisingly is the first one to open up, seeing how Rain is being incredible shy about her life, "just a small patch of trees was what I came home to. Job wise I worked with some of the town chefs in their shop, supplying the peaches they used in a few dishes and baked goods. That was probably the reason they kept me as cooking is not a strong suit I possess… No pony else really bothered to buy any of the fruits, keeping me from expanding the field any. They had a rather large supplier for their needs."

As the other two friends begin to remember that horrid dinner Peaches tried to supply them on one of the first days they had met, she continues sharing information on herself, "foal hood was simple, a bit lonely, but simple. No siblings to depend on, just parents who were a bit different taste wise. They liked living in an apartment with all these fancy things, while as a small filly I wanted a yard to play in. Oh how much I would have given to just have had a yard to play in, or someone to play with. They decided I had to be homeschooled, and that 'we didn't need anyone else' or anything of that sort.

I was expected to be some sort of musician; constantly that idea was pounded into daily life. Every day I never gained a cutie mark, never once did I master any instruments, every failure and every day without that special mark they would get angry, like it was my fault or something.

It finally snapped for them once when they brought me to the library to check out some books. They decided to let me check out something about whatever I wanted, to see if some freedom would allow my 'musical talent' to blossom. What I ended up with was some sort of 'gardening for beginners' book that involved anything from flowers, to bushes, to trees.

On the way home a couple pots, soil, and seeds were bought after I pleaded and pleaded. While we were at the local gardening shop the owner quickly took a liking to a small filly trying to grow plants in the middle of a large town, so he gave us a small peach sapling as a starting present. The small patio we had quickly had been filled with a few small flowers which sprouted rather quickly, along with the small peach sapling. My parents didn't approve until the plants began to bloom, something else that seemed to prove that not every pony in this world has patience…" Lucky and Rain just about choke as they begin to laugh out loud, remember just who it was that can't stand sitting still on trains…

"Having something to look forward to and to take care of made putting up with the lessons on music easier, even though I completely sucked at it. But like with everything that a young foal wants to do, they tend to get rather obsessed with it. My parents ended up buying some peaches at the store for us to try means my small peach tree wasn't dying. I loved them, and once the peach tree began growing I gained my cutie mark, which defeated the ideas of my parents. Not what they wanted, but once they had accepted it they too were proud.

We began going to the park, rather awkward seeing the two of them trying so hard to please a small filly. But it made my life so much happier, so it was worth it. They even got permission for us to use the apartment's grassy spots, somewhat like yards but not so much. It wasn't as good as having our own yard to use, but it was better than nothing.

After those few years, what we kind of see as a phase now, we all get along pretty well. They still prefer music and the city life but they don't push it on others.

Now that I started talking about it with some pony else, I guess my cutie mark could represent something more than what it seems to couldn't it Lucky? It's not just a couple peach slices, it's how a plant changed my family I suppose."

"What about you Rain? Did you come from some sort of Pegasus city up in the clouds?"

"Well, not really… It was just a normal city but it did have a lot of pegasi. As a filly there was a special class for the pegasi around my age. We were expected to manage to weather for the area, something I proved to love, but every pony else didn't. Everything ended up being some sort of competition with the others; nothing would end up being done properly so I would have to be left behind to patch their work up. The other pegasi would grab the lightest rain cloud they could then just fly as fast as possible like it was a race or something, not even thinking about the things under then that needed the water…

By the time I would get back, after watering everything the others would miss, the teacher had scolded them, which would make them all angrier at me.

I tried to explain to the teacher what was happening, she understood, but it took time to get the class changed, giving the others time to keep doing what they were doing. She had the pegasi that mistreated their duties moved back into the regular schooling unit, and replaced with nicer pegasi my age a month or so later on. She said that if I could get my parents to write some sort of note to the school board that maybe it could have all went faster, but that wouldn't have happened as they needed both parents to sign it. My mother would have agreed to it, but father was rather… distant. He would never realize that the bullying was as bad as it sounded, or that anything needed to be done, while mom would try to be a parent in the situation.

The class I went to and the class the others went to was in the same school though, so recess and whatever other free time we had was spent in the same area. I am sure you four can see the problem there, this time my group of the new weather class stayed together making every pony else easier to deal with.

With the class being changed with all new pegasi, this time every pony seemed to be nice. We never had any of the problems like we had before, so the rest of the school years went by easier. Friends were made, the weather was handled rather nicely, and everything was just overall nicer. Without the hassles we could enjoy managing the weather in the town and forest surrounding it, thus me gaining my cutie mark.

Now school life could be filled with the normal things, playing and enjoying the weird little things. We would find random clouds and shape them into different things then place them around town while we were out in our free time. We had a rather large cloud hideout above the forest kind of like a club house made for those of us in the weather class.

When it came to graduation the pegasi that were gifted in the ways of weather were given the chance to move on to Cloudsdale, my whole class was given the opportunity but I never felt comfortable living on clouds, I liked playing in them and everything, but never actually living in them, along with the fact that father wouldn't allow it, we weren't moving.

The pegasi that rushed through everything were left behind in the town along with me, something not too thrilling.

In later life I managed to get a job in weather management, simply picking up the things that the next generation class would miss. At least until we all got these letters sending us on this mission against the cult, which seems to have given us some good things and some bad I guess. It is funny; I was just about to move out of that town."

"Well, means all of that is off our chests, why don't we show you three to your rooms?" Pure Diamond and Maroon Diamond stand up and begin walking over to the stairs leading upwards into the rest of their home. Lucky, Peaches, and Rain follow shortly behind.

"Shouldn't we be heading back to Verre though? Don't want them worrying about us, or at least we should send them a note or something," Lucky unlatches her saddle bag; of course she contains everything in there.

"No need, we already have the guards send a letter to Honey Darling. Besides, you can't simply just show up here and not expect to stay the night can you?" Pure Diamond winks towards the three behind her, "we never really knew if we would be having any pony over so we always made sure to have a spare bed room."

The five ponies walk into a large spare bedroom with four beds, one more than needed but how could Lucky's aunt and uncle know exactly how many ponies to plan for in advanced? It's a rather square bedroom, two beds on the right side and two on the left. The side of the bed where the pillows are is up against the wall while the end of the bed faces the bed across the room from it. All completed by one large window on the farthest wall from the door.

The three place all their extra saddle bags and luggage on the extra bed, then each continue to claim one of the remaining three.

"In the morning there is someone at the castle which I think you three would like to meet," Pure winks once again at the group, mainly towards Peaches for some reason, "remember, friends forever!"

"Oh Celestia…" Peaches gently slaps herself in the face with a hoof, "I think I know who this is going to be."

In the morning the five head off to the castle like planned, Celestia's royal guards stationed throughout the entire facility. One can hear the clashing of metal in the background. The group walks up to one of the guards, lead by Pure Diamonds.

"Excuse me, could you point us in the direction of Blade?" The guard raises his front leg to the left, where the group once again led by Pure Diamond head. At the end of the short path they reach a large training area, pretty much a normal training area, green grass, some wooden benches, training dummies, plenty of guards, and one taller stallion in the middle.

"You have to put more strength into it! No matter how low ranking the cult member they will still wield more strength than you would realize!" Blade has one of the guards beaten on the ground, similarly to how he had Peaches when she first faced his mad attacks.

"What are we, bullying our students?" Peaches walks over to Blade with a smart comeback even though she has nothing to do with whatever is going on.

Blade instantly sticks a new friend's forever sticker onto Peaches forehead, this time even more glitter than the last one, "Ha! Long time student! Isn't it a part of being a teacher to bully the student?"

"You have such a weird sense of humor… I guess you weren't joking about becoming a trainer for Canterlot's royal guards, does this have anything to do with the cult?"

"Why yes, I was asked to train them in combat against the cult members. Some of the guards are convinced that the lower ranking cult members can't put up that much of a fight, but they will be surprised if they aren't properly trained in the ways of close combat. If the higher ranking generals are immortals then we can expect the same with the lower ranking officers, or maybe even the regular members."

"Although, it is getting tough to teach them all at once, I have never done more than a couple ponies at the same time. It gets way too confusing with this many…" Blade continues on, rubbing his head trying to consider different teaching options, "Alright every pony, station yourselves into groups of two each pony with a training sword of your choice! Begin sparing once ready!"

~Obsidian Castle~

"Is it ready yet?" Wretched Darkness enters a dimly lit room, the scientist is inside the room waiting.

"Why yes, I think so," The lights are switched on, revealing what it is that they are talking about. At first it seems like a faceless corpse, a body of some sort.

"You have once again pleased me beyond words, but tell me, why is it faceless and without marks of any sort?"

"Oh, yes. Remember, you _are_ a shape shifting creature. Your default shape will be a bit, let's just say, dull before you are in it."

"Alright, when can we begin then?"

"Whenever you are ready, sir, just give us the signal and we will have everything ready."

"No need to wait, go ahead and let's get this over with now."

The scientist levitates the lifeless black body into the air, then continues over into one of the next rooms, a much larger, sinister, lab room with a large machine in the middle. The same one that was used to bring back the dead it seems, this time just a little modified. There are a total of three pillar like machines shooting from the roof down towards the floor at one location, where the lifeless black body now lies.

"Let me quick run you through how this will work; we will first use the magic transfusion machine to empower the body with enough magic to withstand the process. We will be using the magic that we took from the ponies we pony napped. It will be inserted into the machine as the process goes as small canisters. But after we use up the canister we will simply use the magic in the castle, which is where the bulk is stored anyways.

Next will come the magic consumption machine which we will use to absorb you into a canister, we originally use the magic consumption machine to seal away magic from the ponies we were pony napping, as you are fully aware of. But with some small modification we made it so it could absorb your entirety into a small canister.

The final step is to take the canister which contains you, and insert it into the body using the enchanting machine. Our original purpose was to empower objects, but later on we found that we could empower living things. Like that filly that was birthed shortly after we killed her mother, the one that came a short while ago? Oh I can't remember her name right now. But anyways, we will use this machine to send your non-physical body that you possess now into the newly constructed physical one that we just finished. You should still be able to do whatever you wish with it."

The black lifeless body is levitated underneath the machines; the scientist takes position in front of the machine control panel as the machines turn. The transfusion machine is now in the front, it begins to power up with the life of the castle. The scientist pushes in canister after canister of magic that was pulled from the poor ponies enslaved earlier.

After a dozen or so of the canisters a small plug in sized hole opens up in the floor, the scientist pulls a cord out of the machine then continues to plug the machine into the floor. The two have to sit and wait a few moments before going onto the next step as the body is empowered with the magic energy of countless ponies.

"Alright, I am about to get the consumption machine ready. When I do can you please position yourself underneath it?"

The next machine tilts so it is facing the floor, Wretched Darkness flows underneath it. The machine powers on then absorbs Wretched into a small canister which the scientist then takes out of the machine.

After returning to the control panel, the scientist hits a few buttons causing the three machines to turn together so that the final machine is in front of him. A small door opens for the canister to be placed in, which it is shortly afterwards.

The machine shoots a bright laser into the lifeless body, the liquid inside the canister being drained as the process continues. Pure power is shaking the entire room and everything inside it. The humming sound the machine is putting off deafens out any other sounds.

Suddenly the machine stops, the canister is empty, and everything is powered downs.

"How do you feel, sir?"

"Great." The black body melts onto the ground like water, then flows upwards forming a tall pony. It takes a few steps, without making the sloshing sound expected. Instead it makes a metallic cling with every step.

"This is perfect, exactly as remembered!"

Slits begin to appear all over the black pony's body; its head, neck, legs, back, stomach, everywhere. They all snap open to reveal frightening eyes, blackened by the insanity that dwells inside, bloodshot, each searching in every direction. A few of the slits appear to be mouths, with teeth sharper than swords and shaped like triangles.

He begins to melt onto the floor again, this time as a shadow. Covering all the walls, the eyes and mouths still there haunting any pony daring enough to see them.

Nothing natural is coming from what has been born in the Obsidian castle tonight.


	8. Assault on Canterlot

The three say their farewells before boarding the train, knowing that they will not be coming back for some time. It was agreed with the princesses that any other planning would be done through letters, so the three could get back home to enjoy their free time and get ready for the fights ahead.

"That all worked out better than I thought it would," Peaches sets her sword down against the wall of their train cabin before sitting down on one of the benches.

"Especially now that we have the royal guards to help with the cult members and the castle," Rain sits down in front of Peaches next to Lucky on the next bench so the three are facing each other.

"We need to work on our plan, we know from the note book that their main members at least seem to be immortal or something. So we can assume that all the members we fought last time will be back. Regal, the large gray unicorn we fought first. Then there are the changelings, Vexation and Ornament."

"And the leader, we kind of fought him last time I guess."

"Right, and this time he may have a new body. Something else we have to worry about," Lucky's eyebrows furrow as she rest her chin on her hoof, "There's also that scientist that we read about, whether or not he is still around I don't know. With all these monsters it will be best to not get separated, even though we have trained quite a bit we cannot underestimate them. But on the note that we do get separated, try to be safe."

"Right."

"For items we need to bring, I think it's rather self explanatory that Peaches brings her sword and anything else she needs for it. Rain, make sure to bring an in depth first aid kit along with some medical tools. Let say, scalpels and such that may be needed for surgeries. Anything you can think of, I hope you don't need to perform anything like that but it's never good to be unprepared. "

Lucky continues on, "Rain, if you can I think it would be best if you carried the stuff Celestia gave us for sealing their leader. You are our only Pegasus and probably one of the most agile ones here, it is very important to keep them out of harm's way. "

"Wow, you certainly have thought some of this through quite a bit haven't you?" Rain looks towards her friend from the window.

"We have had time, last night was a rather long one."

"Next stop Verre!"

The train stops at its destination, the three ponies depart at the train station. Once again it is rather quiet, not a lot going on in the small town of Verre, just the ponies that live there walking back and forth from wherever it is they are going, even a few are enjoying the outdoors and sitting down on benches scattered around town. Perhaps a few of them are even travelers.

"Alright, we will go get some of the medical items we talked about earlier. Rain, I am sure you know where to go for this."

Rain heads off to the hospital and the medical supply store by it to stock up on anything she can think of with the other two shortly behind her. Putting together a small kit in a spare saddlebag, everything that Lucky mentioned was stuffed into it. Including some extras she could think of, but nothing too fancy as not much can be fitted into a saddlebag yet still be comfortable to maneuver in. The store offered a surprising lot of different things for the purpose of healthcare, including emergency first aid kits.

~Streets of Canterlot~

In the shadows of a closed store hides Wretched Darkness, the ponies in the town of Canterlot unaware that the sinister creature is even outside their doorways. Its shape seems to be that of just the shadow in the corner, not a single pony can tell that he is there.

The shadow slithers its way down the wall then in between the cracks of the pavement, moving its way towards the castle. Once it reaches the castle walls it begins to reach upwards onto them, creeping its way in through one of the windows where an unknowing guard is making his rounds.

The shadow forms into the guard's shadow, then continues to form bandage like appendages which wrap around the guard. The guard drops his flashlight in the process, pure terror reflected in his eyes. The first thing to leave him is his voice as his mouth is wrapped in the bandages. After a few moments his whole body is wrapped, only then do the bandages become clear so one can see the guard like nothing had happened. Now Wretched Darkness has control of some pony else, and can get into contact with those in charge.

He walks down the hallways in search of the throne room, its near sunset so both princesses should be in there or at least somewhere close to it. Wretched sees a chef with a cart walking down the next hallway, staying a safe distance away from the chef Wretched follows him to the throne room. The baker uncovers the food, which is now shown to be some manner of cake, and two slices at that, then walks into the throne room.

When the chef walks back out of the room Wretched extends his front leg unnaturally forward and crushes the poor pony against the wall, when he does so his hoof expands to cover the whole ponies body so no sound is made from the assault. The throne room door is opened and Wretched continues inside to greet the princesses.

"Guard, what is the matter? Why have you entered our room at such a late hour?" Luna uses her "Canterlot voice" towards the guard.

"Luna, this is not a guard. Or at least the thing we are speaking to is not." Celestia drops her cake down onto the platter it was brought in on.

"I see you two are just as fond of me as the last time all those years ago," Wretched cast the guard aside, who quickly runs outside the throne room in shock.

"We will never be fond of you! Not sense what you did!" Luna is still yelling royally.

"You still haven't told us why you changed so, you didn't used to be so set on violence like you are now. What happened? What changed?"

Celestia hit a nerve, a flow in energy is felt in the air. "I felt the Light, and Dark, of Insanity. Something you two will never understand! How could you understand what has happened?"

Blade rushes through the doors, the guard that ran out standing behind him. Blades face expresses pure anger towards the creature that dares to stand before Equestria's supreme rulers.

"Go back and tell the other guards to evacuate the castle, keep every pony away from the castle until we say differently." Blade motions for the other guard to leave the throne room, "How did you get in here? We had guards stationed in every hallway!"

"Oh not every hallway my Prized Blade, and what does it matter how many guards you have stationed if I can just take control of them? You merely gave me a way to get in here easier."

Wretched's front leg extends at an amazing speed towards Blade, who quickly unsheathes his two swords and blocks the attack. Even with him blocking the attack it still pushes him out into the hallway causing dust and debris to fly into the air.

Wretched's leg shoots back to its regular shape, as the dust clears Blade runs back into the room crashing into the now metallic creature with his two swords. A small amount of shock rushes onto his face as he tries to analyze how Wretched turned into metal so quickly, or even at all.

Celestia readies a charge of magic in her horn; Blade jumps back away as Celestia releases the bolt.

As it hits Wretched Darkness another cloud of smoke fills the air. Both alicorns and the pony are shocked to see that their attack did nothing to the strange creature.

"My scientist have amazed me again, I don't even have to dodge an alicorn's attack anymore!"

Luna runs towards Wretched, magic power being charged in her horn. As she gets close to the pitch black creature she twirls to trip him. Her leg merely fazes right through him though, as his legs turn into liquid then reform as a metal afterwards.

Wretched kicks Luna in the chest sending her sideways then slaps her sideways farther with an extended leg from the side. Luna slides back to the side of her sister.

Wretched Darkness melts onto the floor, then fills all the walls and ceiling with a pitch blackness never before seen by the three ponies. The same insane eyes open all over the room, staring down the group.

"What in Equestria is going on...?" Blade tenses up, readying for an attack from any direction.

Luna begins a barrier spell, but the speed of the barrier isn't fast enough. A spike of blackness shoots towards the three, Blade jumps in front of it blocking it with his Swords once again sending him backwards.

"You're going to get yourself killed!"

The spike shoots backwards to the wall, Blade gets back up and regroups with the two princesses, "You have brought me here to help with this, so I will do all in my power to protect you two and this wonderful kingdom we live in against this monstrosity."

"Such a noble stallion we have here lets test that."

Spike like tendril and tendril strike Blade's swords, flinging him into the air in all directions. Celestia and Luna try to levitate him out of the way with no luck. Both alicorns begin to throw beam after beam of magic in all directions at the shadows loaming around all the walls and ceilings causing the eyes to close.

One of the throne rooms wall collapse from the attacks from the sisters, letting enough light in for Wretched Darkness to be forced back into his normal pony shape.

Blade rushes towards Wretched with another strike of his swords, Wretched's front leg extends and swipes hitting Blade's side sending him flying out the now collapsed wall. Luna flies out the opening catching Blade before he falls to his death.

Celestia is next to follow, she flies out the gap to group with the other two ponies. Wretched walks up to the edge of the collapsed walls.

"How does it feel to have _**your **_castle turned to rubble before your eyes? While it may only be a wall right now, before long I will reduce your whole castle to nothing!"

"Luna, ready your barrier. We will keep him occupied for now."

"But sister, you can't possibly think that you can hold him off for that long-"

"Just do it!"

Luna hasn't had her sister raised her voice in a long time, she lowers her head as magic energy raises into her horn.

Celestia levitates Wretched, thrusting him onto the ground with a loud thud. Blade rushes at the creature splattered on the ground just to be thrown into the air by a large tendril formed from Wretched's strange body.

Celestia's infamous holy beam is thrown towards Wretched yet again, throwing him against the castle away from Blade.

Wretched's front leg extends hitting Celestia sending her backwards as it overpowers her. Celestia rapidly flaps her wings trying to stop the thrust and return to the battlefield.

The leg bends sending Celestia into the air against her will, and then it bends again sending her crashing into the ground, stunning her for a few moments.

Back where Blade, Luna, and Wretched are, Wretched forms one of his legs into a large blade. As he walks towards Blade he slices one of the castles trees in half. Wretched bounds towards Blade, readying his blade like leg to strike the earth pony.

As Wretched's sharp weapon meets Blades body, Blade stabs both of his swords through Wretched's body. Both assailants remove their weapons, walk back a few steps, and then view their wounds.

Wretched flies backwards yet again against the castle walls, right before Blade collapse he is levitated gently towards the royal sisters. A deep gash is across his whole body where Wretched struck him, from the shoulder all the way down his stomach, if he doesn't get immediate medical attention he will bleed out shortly.

Wretched's wounds on the other hand, have healed completely, like his body is made of some sort of liquid.

At that moment Luna's barrier spell begins to take effect, its center begins at Luna herself. But it expands to cover all of Canterlot, forcing Wretched out of the city limits.

"I guess that means our battle is done for now, none the less a successful experiment and enjoyable time. I haven't been able to leave that Obsidian Castle ever sense the last battle." Wretched Darkness returns back to his Obsidian Castle.

As Lucky, Rain, and Peaches return to their home in Verre they receive a royal letter from Celestia herself.

_Dear Students,_

_You were probably wondering why the sun has not set in the sky yet, we were assaulted by Wretched Darkness, the leader of the cult short moments ago._

_There were only a couple casualties, and many injured are being treated. One is Blade; he was the main fighting force against that monstrosity with Luna and I. The most we could do was delay the assault enough for Luna to cast a large scale barrier spell to push the cult leader out of Canterlot._

_Before we could end the fighting Wretched wounded Blade terribly, we are doing our best to save him. His whole body has been gashed open and he has lost a large amount of blood, he is unconscious at the moment but out doctors have managed to close and clean the wound._

_We fear the worst, if the leader attacked Canterlot head on by himself then what sort of force is the whole cult and how will we be able to defeat them?_

_He got in the castle by shape shifting into different cracks and crevices then taking over the body of one of our guards. After doing so he followed a chef to the throne room, crushing the poor pony to death before assaulting Luna and I inside the room. _

_We are sending a guard that can cast the barrier spell to Verre right away; we would hate to see this same fate fall upon every pony there. They will not bother with telling any pony when they have arrived; they will simply cast the spell. I have sent a similar letter to this one to the rest of the town so it should not scare any pony else._


	9. Shock

A large crystalline bubble covers all of Verre by morning. Lucky's, Rain's, and Peaches' home had become the center of intelligence for the letters back and forth from Canterlot. What little info had been gathered from the assault was sent to the ponies at Verre for the upcoming attack.

No pony took the attack on Canterlot well; some of the town's ponies locked themselves in their own homes. While some of the others went into some sort of emergency mode and started hoarding survival tools into their homes. It's a good thing that Lucky, Rain, and Peaches had thought to hoard stuff beforehand the day before.

The latest letter from Canterlot had explained Blade's condition in more detail; the gash pretty well covered his whole body. But the bleeding was under control and his life was no longer threatened as long as he was under medical supervision.

The three friends walk into their home, close the door, and then sit down on their sofa to relax after the stress of last night. Peaches is clearly struck by the injury of her teacher but the anxiety and shock of a direct attack on Equestria's capital is hitting every pony.

"I think it's time that we end this, I will contact Celestia in a little bit asking her when the guard unit will be ready for the attack." Lucky sets her saddlebag down next to the sofa.

"What if the bomb unit was taken out though?" Rain tries to calm every pony like usual.

"If we wait any longer another city may be attacked or even wiped out completely! What point will there be in this if there is nothing else to defend?"

"Oh, sorry-"

"No, I'm sorry, Rain. I didn't mean to snap out like that. It's just that this has been very stressful. Maybe its best that we sit and relax for a while before writing to the princesses, I don't think a stress filled letter would help things at the moment."

Rain's special tub of ice cream helps settle things down, along with the presence of friends.

Lucky levitates a letter and a quill out of her saddle bag, and then begins writing her letter to the princesses.

_Dear Celestia and Luna,_

_Everything in Verre is turning to chaos; every pony is panicking in their own way. Some hiding in their homes, some hoarding things they deem as necessary. But a majority is trying to help us come up with plans if we get attacked. However; like with past problems Equestria has faced I am sure you can imagine the terror they are imagining._

_I am sure the same thing is happening in other areas and towns that are aware of what happened in Canterlot. _

_If this attack was not meant to completely overthrow you two, then perhaps it was meant as a sort of tactic to make us attack them. Either way, we can be sure that another attack will come if we do nothing but defend ourselves. Even if we do just defend ourselves, how long can these barriers hold out? The attackers could wait us out or the casters could be overtaken by fatigue._

_So back to our question, when can we have the guard unit and bomb unit ready for attack? We are as ready as we will ever be._

_You're faithful Students,_

_Lucky, Rain, and Peaches_

The letter catches flame and is sent to Canterlot.

"Hopefully we will get a reply in a little bit..."

The three sit for what seems like hours, doing nothing but chatting and eating their ice cream. Never before now has Peaches' "friends forever" sticker seemed so important.

"Hey, uh, Lucky, could you do something for me really quick?"

"Sure, what is it Peaches?"

"I was wondering if you could put Blades sticker onto my sword... I know it sounds weird but, um-"

"Don't worry about it, were do you want it sealed on? I am assuming you want it fused onto it with magic?"

"Ya, I was thinking on the bandages that are used in place of a sheath if you can?"

Peaches hands the sword and its bandage like sheath to Lucky, who seals the sticker onto the cloth. Permanently placing a piece of Blade onto the sword.

A royal letter appears in the air in front of the three, Rain grabs it out of the air as the other two are occupied. She gives it to Lucky who opens it and reads it aloud.

_Dear Lucky, Rain, and Peaches,_

_I see your points, and we feel that the assault on Canterlot was a scare tactic of sorts. If Wretched wanted to take over last night then he would have brought his generals and guards, it would have made it all much easier. Or he would have just wiped the whole castle out in an instant, but instead it seemed as if he was toying around with us. _

_Luckily, none of our guards or guard units was completely wiped out during the assault. So we can continue the attack as planned, except with a few changes. Blade will no longer be able to lead the assault on the castle, he is too injured to continue and it will take a long time for him to recover._

_We need to decide on a date of attack, would in two days work for you three? _

The three look at each other, the back at the note. They all agree that they would attack the cult in two days. They continue to send a note back to Canterlot confirming the date.

After getting back the next letter going over the attack information again, they agree to go inform the town's ponies. They walk outside and go to Honey Darling's House.

Once they get there they see that most of the town is already gathered around there, with Honey Darling in the middle trying to calm them.

"Honey, we just got everything settled out with Celestia and Luna on the details of what we are going to do."

All attention goes to the three ponies walking towards Verre's leader, awe struck faces filled with shock gasp at what they had just heard coming from them.

"We would be happy to share some of the info if it would help to calm the town's ponies."

"Yes, uh, please do."

Lucky, Rain, and Peaches go up to the small stage. Dozens of glaring eyes staring them down, understandable with what all is going on.

"As you all know Canterlot was attacked by the leader of that cult we have been having troubles with. He managed to destroy part of the castle. Almost kill Blade, Peaches trainer, the newly hired trainer of the royal guards, and the newly hired guard of the princesses themselves

Luna just barely cast a large scale barrier spell on Canterlot that managed to shove the cult leader, Wretched Darkness, out of the town. We now have a similar spell cast on our town that should keep any malicious creatures or ponies out of the town for a short amount of time.

It has thus been agreed that we will attack the cult directly-"

"_**WHAT!**_" Honey Darling interrupts Lucky's speech, "do you even know what you are proposing? You're going to get killed!"

"We know it's risky, but how many towns will the cult take out? How many lives will this cult have to take before some pony does something? Besides; we have the royal guard behind us. If this was as bad of an idea as it sounds, then why would we have support?

We have a vague plan so far; as us three take on the main forces of the cult the rest of the cult will be taken on by the royal guard. There will also be a special bomb squad of the royal guards that will directly attack the Obsidian Castle and blow it up, weakening the cult leader.

The cult leader is directly attached to the castle, so this is very important.

But please, no pony go outside the barrier. The cult could be waiting right outside it."

Out of the crowd a voice rings out, "if the three of the strongest ponies at Canterlot couldn't handle them, what makes you think you three can?"

"We were given a few special experiments by Celestia and Luna, a sealing box and a potion of some sort. From what we understand it will make the leader physically weakened. If these items would have been at Canterlot during the attack then perhaps the leader could have been dealt with then."

After a long and tiring speech with the town the three ponies go home and collapse in their beds. They had spent their entire day trying to settle every pony down and explain what was going on.

Before settling in for bed another royal letter appears in the air.

_Dear Lucky, Rain, and Peaches,_

_Blade has awoken from his wound and the surgery resulting from it. He seems alright now, still in no condition to do any fighting, but he is conscious and recovering very quickly. _

_He has given us some more information on Wretched Darkness, some info that if easier explained and observed when you directly assault him. One of the main points is how he shape shifts, he can pretty well do anything; changing from liquid to metal in a matter of moments. Thus his defense is incredibly high either way, when in metallic form he can simply block. While in liquid form he moves out of the way or your movements and attacks faze right through him. Magic attacks have the same effect as physical attacks with these stages._

_His legs can extend in incredible amounts, using them like weapons. Along with that he even seems to be able to shape shift his legs into weapons, the gash Blade got was from when Wretched Darkness made a large sword from his leg then thrust it into Blade._

_There was also a certain point where he melted onto the floor then covered all the walls and ceilings, making the entire room pitch black. Eyes opened all over, we think that he sees with them or that the technique is created with these eyes. They may just be some sort of scare tactic but it's better to be safe than sorry. With this technique he attacked with strange spikes that moved in all directions._

_Perhaps the main point of this letter is just to let you three know that Blade will be fine, we have our best doctors at his side. Getting a good night's sleep will be important._


	10. Failed Ambush

The Obsidian Castle has moved to a new location, a large flat area surrounds it. Everything is dead, no grass, no trees, nothing. Just dark dirt and the red sky above, its nearing sunset but there may be hours left in the day as Celestia and Luna are delaying the movement of their planetary orbs for this moment.

Quite a ways away from the castle is a large hill; Lucky, Rain, and Peaches are hiding on the other side of it out of the sight of the cult and their large castle.

"Lucky, I think I see them," Rain points a hoof over to the right side. To the right, still behind the large hill, is a huge army of royal guards moving in their ranks closer and closer to their position exactly like Celestia had said in her letter.

"Exactly as planned, they will scout out the area then move over to the side of the castle for their part of our assault," Lucky grins slightly, loving how their plans are working like they should.

The guards do exactly like they were told, moving over to the side of the castle while staying hidden behind the large hills on the outskirts of the castle. Every pony is still quite a ways away from the castle but close enough to see it slightly.

The three ponies turn back to look at the castle, as they do a bloodcurdling scream is heard from their right side. They quickly jerk back to see what in the hay is going on to see a guard on the ground in a spasm, almost like they are having a seizure. At that moment all of Lucky's senses black out, all she can see is a pitch black background with the bloodshot eyes that Celestia described in her letter.

She begins to scream.

Peaches has her pinned to the ground in an instant yelling in her face, after a few moments of the blood curdling screaming she wakes as if it was a dream. Her face has gone pale, eyes dilated, sweating like nothing before.

"What's wrong? They know we're here!"

That must have been their plan, nothing more than to pinpoint where they were.

A lightning bolt strikes the hill obliterating it throwing the ponies sideways onto the ground. As they stand up they notice that the screaming has stopped, the illusions must have stopped also. Every pony turns to look towards the castle; the cult is out and ready for the assault which was supposed to be an ambush.

Wretched Darkness, Regal, Vexation, Ornament, a scientist like pony, and a strange looking tan and yellow pony are at the gates. Wretched, the scientist, and the tan pony stay behind as the rest rush forward towards Lucky, Rain, and Peaches.

The guards are still trying to reassemble from the illusion earlier as the lower cult members rush down into their hiding place. Chaos takes over from there; the royal guards were unable to gather in their ranks before the cult members attacked. But it seems that Blades training regime worked, as the guards quickly take over the situation.

By the time Lucky can turn around and realize what is going on the changeling's have flung her sideways away from her friends. Regal attacked Peaches separating them from the group, leaving Rain in the middle confused on what to do.

"Rain, don't worry about me I can take him! Go to Lucky she's outnumbered!"

Rain jumps up and begins flying in Lucky's direction, picking up everything she dropped during the explosive attack they were recovering from a few moments ago.

Peaches unsheathes her large sword to get ready for the next attack, which comes quickly in thrust from the gray unicorn. His punches are quick and heavy, almost enough to throw Peaches over but her training in chaotic movements against Blade helps her with quick and heavy attacks.

With one of the attacks she uses the momentum to shove herself backwards then jumps forwards. Once she reaches Regal she smacks him in the jaw with her large sword, turning his attention to the side. Dislocating his jaw and nearly knocking it off his face, but perhaps the most shocking thing is that none of these wounds are bleeding at all. It's almost as if the resurrected have no blood.

"Darn it, sword get with it and sharpen already!"

Regal's head snaps back into place then his jaw shortly follows, the results of the cult's experiments finally showing themselves.

"What the-"

Regal charges Peaches causing her to put her guard back up, his heavy punches taking a toll on her stamina. Each punch sounding like its metal clashing with metal, deafeningly loud bangs coming from the clashes. Peaches grabs the chain on her sword, throwing it at Regal which he guards the dull sword with his bare front legs. She then pulls the sword back, twirls around, and then sends it flying back at Regal from the side. The pure weight of the sword causes the unicorn to be pushed sideways a good foot or so. But once again never cutting him at all, the dulled blade become more of a nuisance than a blessing.

As Regal turns his attention from the sword to the earth pony wielding it his eyes widen, Peaches is running straight at him but by the time he can begin to raise a hoof she punches him in the face sending him onto his back.

"We have years of torture to give you..." Ornament paces around Lucky. They can see Peaches fight from the side; a small smirk appears on Lucky's face knowing that her friend is doing alright.

Rain comes in from the side, ramming Ornament in the side knocking the air out of his lungs. Giving Lucky enough time to stand up and ready herself. Her eyes begin to change, one holy and the other evil, one white and aqua blue, while the other is black with yellow irises.

Lucky sends a beam of holy light towards Ornament, white static around the beam. The air is humming with power from the attack. The changeling puts up a barrier that shatters with the attack, his eyes widen and he looks over to Vexation for a brief moment as another beam is sent in his direction.

Ornament flies into the air dodging the attack, "It's nice to know that a level one barrier won't work anymore, it wouldn't be any fun if that's all it took this time around. How long were we dead for anyways? It had to be a few months at least."

"So it's true! You all were dead then resurrected; such dark magic could only be used by your cult."

"You're just jealous that you can't manage it!"

Vexation rolls her eyes in the background, "Ornament, stop being so annoying!"

"I'll be annoying until you help."

"Ugh, fine..." Vexation walks forward beside her counterpart, magic begins to form into her horn. A dark beam is sent towards Lucky and Rain from the female changeling as Ornament rushes towards them.

Lucky puts up a barrier which blocks the beam, it collapses in time for her to crash Ornament into the ground with her levitation spell. The changeling's wings not strong enough to match the unicorn's spells.

Meanwhile Rain is in the air charging down, she puts her back legs down and kicks with all her weight into the male changeling as he is crashed on the ground from Lucky's spell. The air is smashed out of his lungs once more; Lucky begins another beam, this time a pitch black laser that sends Ornament shooting backwards crashing into another dirt mound.

Before Lucky can send another beam their way a nearly invisible wall is set in place, Vexation's horn lit up with magic aimed towards it. Ornament's wounds heal as he flies back regrouping with his partner.

"This is going to last forever, we didn't account for them healing this quickly," Lucky looks around for some sort of idea, "Unless we can get both of them down at the same time we can't use this box Celestia gave us either-"

"Lucky, focus on Ornament and leave the rest to me. Once you get him wounded enough that he has to stop and heal distract Vexation."

The clear barrier in front of them melts away; the two changelings ready themselves for the next wave of attacks.

Lucky sends another beam towards Vexation, causing her to put up another barrier; while the female changeling is occupied Lucky begins to assault Ornament, occasionally attacking Vexation who is not really putting up much of a fight at the moment.

"You're both being annoying!" Vexation stomps in a fit of rage.

Ornament has dodged most of the beams, seemingly satisfied with his test of powers the first time around. He raises high in the air then plummets towards the ground, before hitting anything he rushes towards the unicorn, Lucky falls sideways dodging the flying changeling, before Ornament can turn around Rain swoops in from the side causing him to lose his balance.

A large piece of rubble the size of a boulder is thrown into the side of Ornament with the power of a levitation spell, and then the piece of rubble is slammed on top of him crushing his body and stopping any movements for the moment. Rain flies down landing beside the boulder, taking the box given to her by Celestia out of her saddlebag. She sets it down before flipping it open, light shines through the box onto the large rock, Ornament is sucked inside in a small tornado like spell, then the box seals shut like it were before.

The two ponies turn their attention over to Vexation, who is visibly unmoved by the performance, "About time, we were sick of him anyways."

Lucky slings the boulder sized piece of rubble into Vexation's shield causing both to splinter apart, a beam of black light is sent through before Vexation can put up another shield sending her backwards a few feet as a mere blocking with the hooves would not completely dull the power behind a concentrated spell like that one. It leaves her legs burnt with some smoke coming from them, but once again they heal in a matter of seconds.

Lucky concentrates on the ground, focusing her magic on the dirt beneath the changeling's hooves. It begins to shake a bit, so Vexation flies a few inches above it hovering out of the sands reach. Then spikes appear from the sand penetrating Vexation's legs keeping her from moving, her face wincing in pain.

The sand had turned to stone, and the unicorn's magic kept Vexation from using hers to free herself. Lucky rearranged the sands particles so they would lock together then held them in place with magic. All she could do was watch as a blue Pegasus came up before her with a black box to seal her in it. However; Lucky wasn't protecting Rain with magic, so Vexation used her own levitation to push the pegasi farther away.

Lucky's concentration went from the spikes to Rain in an instant, freeing Vexation from her painful trap. The changeling snaps the spikes then she falls to the ground, pulling them out of her legs. As Vexation begins to hover, Lucky calls upon the ground once more, raising the sand above her enemy then crashing it onto her, temporarily grounding the hovering enemy.

Before Vexation can dig herself out of the sand once more, Lucky charges another one of her trademark beams, sending it right into the changelings head as she rises out of the dirt, slamming Vexation back down onto the ground. She stays down for a few seconds giving Rain enough time to seal her away.

Lucky walks over to join her pegasi friend; they both look over to the black box that now contains both changelings.

"It seems that knocking the head off one makes it harder to heal quickly."

Rain doesn't know if she should wince at the twisted humor or laugh at it, either way Lucky does have a point. The worse the wound the longer it takes to heal, even for these seemingly immortal monsters.

Regal stands back up from the punch Peaches gave him; the gray unicorn's body heals back to normal in a matter of seconds. He begins to charge magic into his horn, a thin layer of aura moves over his entire body.

While the unicorn is focused on his magic, Peaches runs towards him to smash her large dull sword into him again. This time a loud crash results but no physical damage is done to the gray stallion, the aura surrounding him must be some sort of magical armor.

Peaches quickly retreats back out of Regal's reach to think of a new plan besides blindly attacking him. A speck of blue and a speck of three colors; soft turquoise, yellow and blue, appear in the corner of her sight. Lucky and Rain must have finished the changelings.

"We would ask how you were doing, but it seems that nothing has changed very much."

"Well, I was doing fine then he had to cheat and use his magical unicorn powers!" Peaches waits for a comeback from the mute Regal, but all she gets is silence.

Once Regal notices Rain is the one carrying the sealing instruments, the sand around his feet begins to vibrate as he appears to be readying for a charge. Lucky turns as fast as physically possible to Rain, "Run! Fly away!"

Rain stumbles at the response before flying as fast as her wings can carry her. Regal almost teleports next to her but is shot down by a beam of light from Lucky's horn, catching him off guard and landing him onto his side. Peaches gallops towards the stunned unicorn before he can target Rain again. Lucky tries to perform a levitation spell on him to stop him from moving any farther, but for some reason Regal is not even attempting to move or go towards Rain. He is just standing there watching as the Pegasus flies away.

His attention is turned to the other two as Peaches slams her dulled blade into his face again, with no injury being dealt, simply another loud deafening crash. He begins to walk towards them, Lucky straining to keep the levitation spell on him even though it is doing nothing but tiring her out even more.

She tries the spikes she used against Vexation; they chip away once they hit the aura around Regal's skin. Her beams of light and dark simply push him back a few inches; her attack earlier must have worked so well because he wasn't guarding against her directly. Nothing is working against whatever shield it is that he put up.

A bolt of lightning lights up the dark red sky, a large boom fills every pony's ear drums. Every pony's attention is turned to the blue Pegasus falling to the ground out of the sky and the insane smile on Crimson's face.

"One down and two to go…"


	11. Forgiveness

"_**Rain!**_" Lucky screams at the top of her lungs towards her falling friend, she uses her levitation magic to soften the landing. She then turns her attention to Crimson who is still standing between her and her friend, "and why is _she_ here?"

"Lucky, do you know her? I don't recognize her from anywhere; it must be some pony new to the cult sense the last time we were here."

"That's... she's the filly that I was with when I got my cutie mark... The one that I was protecting, the one that I was friends with my whole foal hood... But _why_ is she here?" Lucky's eye brows arch downward, her face wrinkles with anger, "Why have you sided with the cult?"

"Lucky, look at her neck, she has on that amulet that Dream sealed the leader in last time."

Lucky squints her eyes to look at the amulet her past friend is wearing, and Peaches is correct, it is the alicorn amulet created from the fight they had those months ago with the cult.

"Hmm, I guess that means that we didn't really seal him away. I wonder if that amulet did something to her."

Regal begins another charge towards the two ponies, "I don't know Lucky but we have other things to worry about right now! We need to finish this and get to Rain before it's too late, if-"

"It's not..."

Both ponies roll to the side as Regal charges towards them, narrowly dodging him. In the background Crimson turns around, electricity forming from her mane as she begins walking towards the passed out Rain.

"Don't you lay a hoof on her!" Peaches screams towards the insane pony before galloping in their direction. Crimson doesn't react, simply inching forward.

"I said don't!" Peaches voice begins to crack from the pure emotion she is putting into her warnings and screams, her face showing it all. Crimson still moves forward.

The sand around Regal's feet vibrates for a few short moments before he teleports in front of Peaches, kicking into her guarding stance. Lucky takes this opportunity to put up a small barrier around Rain in the distance, she knows it's not very strong at this distance but its better than nothing.

Peaches sword begins to glow; a eerie blue light surrounds its blade before steadying out into the form of a sharpened edge around the otherwise dull blade.

With more force than ever, she swings the sword into Regal's shoulder, slicing his right front leg clean off. His magic armors no match for the new blade on Peaches sword. Regal's face winces in pain as he opens his mouth to yell, but nothing comes out of his mute mouth.

Peaches grabs the chain on her sword to chaotically swing the sword into Regal, sending it flying into his chest before twisting it sideways ripping it out.

The nearly immortal stallion begins to heal at a unfathomable rate; his leg regenerates within seconds, his chest fuses shut. A smirk appears on his face as he remembers the immortality gifted upon him by his otherworldly master.

Peaches grips the sword by its handle like normal, twirling sideways before cleaving the brute's head off. His body falls over sideways, but the head begins to regenerate back into its spot, beginning with the bone, then the muscle around it before finishing with the skin. The black box is thrown to her by Lucky so she can seal away the behemoth before he causes more grief. Which Peaches gladly does.

While Peaches was fighting with Regal, Lucky had taken the liberty to quickly take the black box and Rain away from Crimson's reach. She had little trouble, merely shooting a beam of light at the lightning pegasus then levitating Rain back to herself.

With all the resurrected out of the way, Peaches and Lucky turn their attention to Crimson. Who is still taking their time getting over to the two.

Peaches looks behind her at the passed out Rain, nearly crying when thinking about how something like this could happen when they were still all together, "Peaches, she'll be alright, she's still breathing. I did a quick checkup while I levitated her over here while you were taking care of Regal earlier."

I look of relief washes over Peaches' face; she turns her attention to the pegasus walking to them.

Crimson leaps into the air then flaps her wings, taking the form of a bolt of lightning she zigzags in between Peaches and Lucky before they can even blink. As the two begin to turn to look at her, she places her front hoof onto the ground pivoting on it, kicking both ponies with her back legs sending them away from each other.

Both ponies are nearly paralyzed from the static of the attack, Crimson's body is covered in a thin layer of it for whatever reason whenever she attacks. Every time Crimson turns into lighting or any form of electricity a loud clap of thunder is heard.

Peaches runs towards the electric pegasi, readying her sword for the next swing. To reduce the affect of the static she releases the sword, letting it fly towards Crimson, and then grabbing it by the chain behind it. Once the sword gets close enough to strike, it doesn't. Crimson materializes as another bolt of lightning twirling around the sword and its chain, striking Peaches in the face with a shattering punch once she gets close enough. Afterwards landing on the ground as the pony she normally is, with Peaches laying on the ground twitching from the static.

Lucky tries to shoot some beams of dark magic into the electric pony, Crimson moves out of the way in a flash of light. The beams throw up plenty of sand behind her. Peaches runs towards Crimson lashing out with her sword, just hoping for one slash to hit its mark, none of them do. The extremely agile pony dodges every attack even if she doesn't materialize as electricity.

Crimson turns to lighting once more, shooting high into the sky then, like a laser, straight down towards Peaches. All Peaches can do is barely roll sideways in time, Crimson lands on all four once the lightning strikes the ground. She turns in quick succession kicking Peaches' sword as she tries to guard sending her sideways.

Lucky puts some sort of holding spell on the pegasus; it looks like a levitation spell, a small layer of aura covering Crimson. She tries to turn into electricity again, but she can't. Her eyes widen, she turns around to see Peaches about to strike her down.

Then the newly formed edge on Peaches sword disappears, her face overcome by shock giving Crimson a chance to block the attack. Peaches falls forward past Crimson still shocked that her blade has failed her, leaving her back wide open for another kick from the pegasus. Luckily Lucky's spell is keeping Crimson's static from tacking affect.

Crimson gallops to Lucky who is concentrating on her spell, leaving Peaches behind her by a few feet. Once she reaches Lucky she smacks her in the face releasing the spell, giving her the chance to use her powers once again.

Her front leg turns into a long whip of electricity, latching onto Peaches then slinging her sideways into a mound of sand. Lucky begins to throw beam after beam at the pegasus as she flies into the air, moving as quick as the lightning she controls.

Once the pegasus gets far enough away, Lucky begins to cast the holding spell once more. Crimson transforms into a lightning bolt to strike down her enemy, heading straight for Lucky's heart, knowing that lightning is faster than any unicorn's spell.

A loud clash of metal fills every pony's ears; Peaches threw her sword into the flight path of Crimson, who was materialized as lightning, redirecting the lightning from its path to Peaches body. Throwing her backwards away from the chain connected to her sword.

Peaches body was sent through an electric thunder storm; her mane and tail is burnt, thrown into coughing fits. Crimson is standing next to the nearly killed pony, unmoved once again by it all. She begins walking towards Lucky, her eyes even more bloodshot than before. Her front leg and hoof form into a large electric blade. It extends towards Lucky, but as it gets within feet of her face the holding spell takes effect, causing the blade to disappear.

Crimson flies into the air with her pegasus wings, flying towards Lucky with the intent to punch her in the face for daring to use the same spell more than once. But Lucky has had experience with some pony trying to fly towards her at fast speeds in a battle with a certain changeling...

Lucky smashes her into the ground with a levitation spell, Crimson smashes on the ground face first. Lucky walks up to Crimson now that she is being held down to the ground, and then continues to step on the alicorn amulet around her neck; smashing the crystal pendant and knocking the pony out.

Lucky walks over to Peaches, she uses a holy healing spell that she has learned recently. Something only she can do sense she has her special eyes. Peaches body lights up and levitates over th ground slightly before setting her down on her four hooves in a standing position.

"Whoa Lucky, you beat her?"

"Ya, that battle would have lasted forever except I broke the alicorn amulet. Turns out it was the source of her power and insanity..."

Lucky and Peaches walk over to Rain, casting the same spell on their passed out friend bringing her back from her sleep.

"Oh whoa, Lucky did you-"

"Yes, we beat them. Sorry to put you through that, we didn't think that Crimson over there would be here..." Lucky looks down onto the sand beneath her hooves, pawing at it.

"By the way, you said something about her being the filly that you knew from when you were younger?" Peaches looks over to the passed out Crimson. _Wait a minute; Blade said something about my sword only having a blade when it needed to. Maybe it didn't want to kill Crimson?_

"Ya, she was the filly that was with me when I got my cutie mark. She was my best friend back then, I don't know what happened to her to make her become this though... something terrible no doubt as she would never do something like this to any pony."

Crimson's hoof begins to twitch; her face slowly looks forward towards the three ponies talking to each other.

"Lucky... where am I?"

Lucky walks over to Crimson and crouches down by her, "You mean you don't remember anything?"

"It's all fuzzy; I did some bad things didn't I?"

"Ya you did some bad things! You sided with the cult that tormented us as fillies!"

"I didn't mean to, I never wanted to kill those guards, I didn't want to fight you guys, I didn't want to hurt any pony, you should know that Lucky!" Crimson tries to yank the amulet off her neck but it won't come off, it seems to be attached to her body and skin, she begins to break down and cry into the sand, "I never wanted this stupid amulet, all its done is hurt others..."

"Lucky, I believe her..."

"Rain..." Lucky goes to snap back at her friend, but then looks back down at the crying pony beside her, "I guess you're right. The amulet is probably the cause; it did feel evil somehow once we started fighting. Almost like it had a mind of its own, probably another twisted experiment of that cult on some innocent pony."

Lucky continues to use her holy healing spell on Crimson, "I guess there's no harm in keeping you around, and if you act up we always have a few spells to keep your powers in check."

Wretched Darkness stomps angrily in the sand, "The only ones of our regimen left are us two, perhaps it's time to use _that_?"

"Yes, perhaps."

The scientist pony walks forwards in the direction of Lucky's group, the sound of gears turning and oil rushing fills the area. Some sort of machinery is beginning to run.


	12. Mechanics of War

"I see both of my failed experiments have met each other…" The white cloaked pony makes his way closer to Lucky's group.

"Lucky, it seems that you were right on the train; that scientist is still alive," Peaches remembers back when they were going to Canterlot to meet Lucky's aunt and uncle, "and Lucky is not a failure!"

"She looks just like those two pieces of trash we _disposed_ of when she was born, I would say that's a failure in its self," The scientist like pony's face begins to smirk slightly, "or do you still miss the parents you never had?"

Crimson turns into a lightning bolt once more, shooting towards the smirking pony at blinding speeds. Once she gets close enough to strike she is redirected around the scientist like a planet orbiting the sun, smashing head first into the ground behind him. As she goes to kick him, she gets levitated and thrown to the side by his magic; the sound of gears turning is slightly heard.

Crimson backs away slightly as Lucky sends a beam of light towards the scientist, with the same result as with Crimson's attack, it gets redirected behind him into the ground.

Peaches charges towards the standing pony, readying her sword and its magic sharpened edge, once she gets within range she strikes the scientist at the side. As the sword hits its target a loud metallic clang fills the air, almost as if both objects being smashed together were made of metal. Peaches looks towards the site of where she struck, a small crevice appears to be in the pony's skin. Not like a cut, but more like an opening of some sort with a thin edge coming out of it, just out of his skin enough to keep her blade from cutting him.

She backs away retrieving her sword, watching the opening on the scientist's skin closely. It appears to fuse back together like it was never even there. The sound of gears is softened when it does so.

"Lucky do you hear that?" Peaches returns to the side of the other three, whispering in hopes that the other pony won't hear them talking.

"The mechanical sounds in the background? I assume it's from the castle, all those machines they have in there they may be trying something weird."

"Hmm, maybe, but it seems to be changing depending on what this guy is doing. Let me try something real quick, you guys can't really do much anyways as magic doesn't seem to work."

Peaches rushes towards the still scientist, wildly swinging her sword left and right just trying to hit him without being blocked. Each time it comes close to hitting him he either dodges slightly or that weird crevice in his skin appears again, blocking the attack, almost like some sort of blade. She aims for the head, slamming the large blade into his face knowing that the weight of her sword should force his head sideways snapping his neck.

Another loud metallic clash fills the air as the sword clashes with the pony's face, barely moving his field of vision to the side. Shock overcomes every pony's faces as they try to figure out how some pony could over power that with simply their neck. But as Peaches pulls her sword away it is revealed.

The skin cracks away from the scientist's face, revealing machinery and gears flowing underneath. Everything is metal, even what's left of his muscles and tendons are metallic fibers of some sort. The rest of his fake skin begins to flake away from his body revealing that his whole body and internal organs have been replaced with machinery, nothing organic left. Just rotating gears, pistons shooting back and forth, oil lightly covers some of the items.

The crevice Peaches was worried about turns out to be some sort of blade that freely moves across his entire body through some sort of cable system, and there are many of them sitting idly waiting. Two move to his front legs, then extend outward so his legs are bladed.

One thing that catches Lucky's eyes is some weird electric apparatus, a cylinder with coils of wire inside it in the middle of his back. It seems to be giving off a magnetic field with slight magic properties of some sort, perhaps it's the reason why none of their ranged attacks are hitting?

"Peaches, aim for the cylinder on his back!"

The scientist, now not resembling his former self at all, grits his teeth and glares at the ponies before him. More of the blades pop out of their sockets all over his body; one is on a large arm like appendage made of metal that was placed into his side, now leaving a rather large gap into the middle of the metal pony's body. One last living piece of him can be seen, a beating heart still rest in the middle. Being fed by a reservoir of whatever he has discovered, no pony can guess what it is.

The sight sickens most of them, leaving nauseous looks on their faces.

The scientist simply looks back at them with disgust, reminding himself about why he never liked to show off his "work". No pony understood what had happened, it all started with the plague all those years ago. Sure he only lost a leg to it, but it was like losing life itself. He couldn't run or play with the rest of the teenagers, all he had was his knowledge.

After experimenting and reading for months on end, he managed to make a fake limb beyond anything any pony else had managed. It connected right to the users nerves, if they still worked. It just required an… amputation, one which no hospital would do for him. He had hit the brick wall, he couldn't try his work on any pony else, and he didn't have the means to try his idea on himself.

That was when he found Wretched Darkness, freshly reformed after being beaten by Celestia and Luna before the incident with Nightmare Moon. That fool had the resources he needed, so he sided with him for the time being to get a hold of the lab equipment. All he had to do in return was conduct experiments and whatever other small task appeared before him.

After amputating his own leg and connecting the false limb he had created, it worked perfectly like a normal limb. But no pony understood his enjoyment; they feared him even worse after that causing him to have to stay in that castle after that moment. He would curse the world, wanting revenge on all those that hated his work.

Over the years he managed to create even more parts of the pony body in machine form, which he added to himself. At first it was all about helping those that needed new limbs, or needed new organs. But he feared death and growing old, how could one complete their research if they died?

He never could completely rid himself of a heart; a living beating heart was what was needed. He has to harvest one from another pony then slowly transfer it from pumping blood, to pumping the organic oil that the machinery needed. He even created a new type of "food" or "fuel" for the heart to feed off of, very simple really now that he has been doing this for years and years.

He snaps out of his trance once he notices that Peaches is once again charging towards him, sword in the air to strike down her opponent.

The large bladed arm from his side reaches forward, extending its reach with hydraulic bars, hitting Peaches sword before she can even lower it herself. As it does so sounds of hydraulic fluid pumping through their tubes fills the air. One of the smaller blades begins to extend towards Peaches' neck almost like a dissection on some dead animal.

Crimson once again tries to intervene, this time without using any sort of lightning magic. She smacks the small dissection blade on the side pushing it away from Peaches' neck, giving her enough time to twist her sword sideways and overpower the hydraulic arm slightly, but still enough to move out of the way.

With a puff of smoke the large arm shoots back into place smashing Peaches' sword sideways out of her mouth, she grabs it by the chain, wrapping the chain around the arm locking it up so it can't move.

Many smaller arms come out of their compartments, working to remove the chain from the larger bladed arm. The smaller bladed arms begin to buzz, and then extend on chains that seem to be controlled by magic themselves, shooting towards the ponies with intend to kill or dissect.

Rain quickly grabs Peaches as Crimson grabs Lucky and they both take to the skies, dodging the blades being sent their way. Lucky is trying to shoot some of the blades down with beams of light, throwing up smoke and stunning them for a few short moments. The two pegasi fly upwards until the blades seem to lose speed, then Crimson, still carrying Lucky, speeds over to the side then downwards towards the machine. Once they get close enough Crimson drops Lucky by the machine for her to finish the job.

Lucky runs up to the machine, grabbing one of the small clawed arms and snapping it off. She then continues to run over to the side where the large bladed arm comes from, bends down, and stabs the beast in the beating heart. Oil shoots out onto the sand as the machine begins to lock up, its life blood bleeding out onto the ground. The other two come down means all the blades have shot back into the machine.

Rain takes the opportunity to rip out the cylinder than seems to be blocking their magic from hitting him, they seem to have beaten the monster but with the way things have been going it's better to be safe than sorry.

A strange tube comes from the ground, a machine from the castle; a glass case with more living, beating hearts inside it. One of the smaller, clawed arms takes one of the organs out of the glass case and replaces the one inside of the pony in a few short moments. Oil begins pumping inside the mechanic pony once more, his joints begin to move, the clawed arms remove Peaches' sword from his larger bladed arm then toss it off to the side.

In a burst of light Lucky sends a beam at the glass cylinder, crashing the hearts onto the sand utterly ruining them for future use. Infuriating the mechanic pony, "What happened to my anti-magic," He looks over to his back, seeing that his cylinder shaped contraption has been crudely yanked from his body and thrown onto the ground before being crushed, "It took me years to make that! How dare you simply rip it from my back!"

Lucky shoots another beam towards the mechanical pony, throwing up plenty of sand but not much more. Crimson turns into lightning then zigzags her way ramming into the angry machine, temporarily stunning the electrical components and causing some sort of cardiac arrest as oil spills out the pony's mouth.

He kneels forward, coughing up the rest of the oil as his smaller surgical arms work on the heart deep inside his body repairing the damage done to him by Crimson's attack. The large bladed arm retracts back into his side, blocking their only way to his heart. All the blades retract back into his body; plates begin to move over like armor.

Peaches tries to sling her sword into the pony's side once more, it bounces off the armor plating with a loud clang. Crimson tries to shock the machine with another lightning bolt but as she gets close enough she is punched square in the face by the mechanic ponies front hoof, instantly materialized back as the Pegasus she normally is. Once again this armor has some sort of anti-magic properties.

Lucky begins to form a large spear from the sand under her hooves, long and slender yet very sharp at the tip. As the other two are occupying the enemy she runs at him, jabbing it into the gap at the base of his neck, then deeper into his body, hopefully somewhere around the heart area.

More mechanical stirring can be heard from inside the pony before he collapse on the ground with oil spilling out the gaps in the metallic armor plating. He disappears in a flash of light, not like an explosion but more like a teleportation spell of some sort.

Wretched stomps the earth once more; his researcher is down along with the rest of his higher ranking army, all that's left is himself. His researcher is gone, apparently he disposed of his own body to keep the secrets hidden inside it secret from any pony else. Wretched knew that the scientist could be trusted; he will run some sort of ceremony before resurrecting him once this is all over.

After he killed Celestia's foals he would free those sealed away in the black box, and once again resurrect those killed in this attack. Wretched's payback will be nice and slow…


End file.
